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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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THE NEW CREATION. 



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BY THE AUTHOR OF 

OUR FAMILY WAYS." 







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JAN 221392 



MILWAUKEE, WIS.; 

The Young Churchman Company, 

1891. 






COPYRIGHT. 

THE YOUNG CHURCHMAN CO., 
1891. 



The Library 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



rx 



"The Christian Faith depends, properly speaking, 
upon a consideration of those two men, through one of 
whom we were sold under sin, while tve were redeemed 
from sin by the Other." — St. Augustine. 



PREFACE. 



It is hoped that this little book may help young 
persons to understand, at least to some extent, the Truth 
on which the whole Christian Faith rests — the Incarnation 
of the Eternal Word. Perhaps it may arouse in some a 
desire to study further this inexhaustable subject, as they 
grow older, by the aid of such works as Wilberforce's 
"Doctrine of the Incarnation," and "Doctrine of the Holy 
Eucharist;" Dr. Ewer's "Operation of the Holy Spirit;" 
Bishop Moberley's "Great Forty Days," and others of sim- 
ilar character, to which the writer has been much indebted 
in the preparation of these chapters. 

S. Leo's famous Tome on the Incarnation, it is hardly 
necessary to mention. His beautiful sermons, of which 
Canon Bright has given us a translation, will be found 
most salutary in their devotional spirit. 

It will be noticed that certain important aspects of the 
Sacraments have not been touched upon; but a considera- 
tion of them did not fall within the especial line of thought 
taken, and to have introduced them would have confused 
and probably wearied the minds of youthful readers. 

The Scotist view, so commonly held, that the Son of 
God would have become Incarnate even if Adam had not 



Preface. 



sinned, has not been alluded to. The form which the 
Incarnation took was in any case determined by the Fall ; 
and the relation between the Fall of man and his Restora- 
tion is all with which the following pages are concerned. 



(House of the Holy Nativity, 
J Providence, R. I. 



THE HEW C^EATIOH- 



"OUR FAMILY WAYS." 



The "Family" is the Church, and this book tells 
about the "ways" of the family. In other words, 
it tells what the Church is, its Creed, its Ministry, 
Liturgy and Sacraments. It is a book for young 
people to read, and read over again. It is full of 
instruction, and is so interestingly written, that 
any earnest reader will be charmed with the 
pleasant way in which the whole subject is treated, 

Tlie Churchman (N. Y.) says of it : This is a very 
excellent little volume to be put into the hands of 
the young, especially when preparing for confir- 
mation. It gives concisely and precisely just the 
information which pastors and teachers do not 
always know how to convey in an attractive form. 

The Church Tear says : An excellent book to put 
in the hands of any young person, and one which 
might edify even an older one. It gives an ac- 
count of the Churchly ways of the Church— the 
family ways of that very large family scattered 
abroad. 

Price, 50 cents, net. 



THE YOUNG CHURCHMAN CO., Publishers. 



THE NEW CEEATION. 



CHAPTER I. 

"In the Image of God created He him." — Gen. i, 27. 

WE all of us know the story of the Old Crea- 
tion; it is so familiar that we could 
probably tell it almost in the very words of the 
Bible ; but it is a continued story, and I feel sure 
that to some of you the continuation is not 
nearly so well known as the beginning. 

Let us read the story together and see if we 
do not find the Second Part even more interesting 
and beautiful than the First. 

Although we are so well acquainted with the 
scene in the Garden of Eden, we will look back 
to it for a few moments. 

There, all about us, we see "every moving 



10 The New Creation. 

creature that hath life," u cattle and creeping 
things, and beasts of the earth," and "winged 
fowl," and all in great numbers, for they were 
"brought forth abundantly." Each one has 
many companions of its own kind. But amidst 
all these, we see one living creature that resembles 
none of them ; search as we may, we can find no 
other like him, not one that shares his nature — 
he is the sole specimen of humanity. 

Of course, we have been told from childhood 
that all men are descended from Adam, but I 
want you to think about it a little, and try to 
realize how all human nature was contained in 
that one man, and was to flow from him, as a 
stream from its source, and spread itself over the 
whole earth. Keep this in mind, because it has a 
great deal to do — indeed, it has everything to do — 
with the New Creation. 

Now we know that this human nature, as 
created and established by God, was perfect — that 
is, it was everything that God intended it to be. 
Adam was good, pure, and holy, and he was 
united to God by a supernatural gift of grace, to 
enable him to do His Will, and to attain to the 



The New Cbeatiox. 11 

end He had designed for him when this life was 
over — that is, to the Beatific Vision. Thus Adam 
was fit to be in direct communion with his 
Creator, Who, we are told, walked and talked 
with His creature in the Garden. 

But before any child was born to Adam, 
before he had transmitted this pure nature to a 
single human being, he lost it ! For God had 
given him a free will — the power, that is, of 
choosing between good and evil — and Adam 
chose evil. He obeyed the voice of the Tempter 
instead of the Voice of God ; he sinned, and thus 
cast away and lost that supernatural gift of grace 
which united him to God, and would have pre- 
served his nature in its first estate. Having lost 
that, his nature became disordered, weak, inclined 
to sin, and utterly unable to attain the end 
designed for it. Its perfection was gone beyond 
all his powers of recall. 

After that (because one can give only what one 
has) Adam could give to his children only the 
corrupt nature which he now had, instead of the 
perfect one which God had given him ; and so we 
read that Adam "begat a son in his own likeness, 



12 The New Creation. 

after his image," not in that image of God in 
which he had himself been created. His sons, of 
course, could hand on to their children only the 
nature they had received from their father ; and 
they, in their turn, could do no better for their 
offspring ; and so it continued from generation to 
generation ; and from that time to this, the fallen 
nature of Adam has been the inheritance of all 
men. 

But — and here begins the most interesting 
part of the story of the Pall — at the very moment 
when Adam and Eve w 7 ere expelled from Eden, 
and deprived of that familiar intercourse with 
God which had made the Garden a paradise to 
them, the gracious promise was given them that 
the human nature which they had so greatly 
injured should one day be restored to its original 
purity, and that as man had been overcome by 
Satan, Satan should in his turn be overcome by 
man. "The Seed of the woman, 1 ' God declared, 
"should bruise the serpent's head." 

What consolation, in their exile, Adam and 
Eve must have found in that promise ! No 
doubt they expected it to be soon fulfilled. 



The New Creation. 13 

When their first son was born, Eve said, "I have 
gotten the man from the Lord," and it seems 
probable that they hoped this was the promised 
Seed Who was to destroy the Destroyer, and restore 
them to holiness, without which they could not 
see the Lord. 

They were mistaken, and hundreds of years 
passed and still the promise was not fulfilled. 
Yet it was never entirely forgotten. Men became 
unspeakably wicked; they cared nothing for God, 
and finally, with the exception of one pious man 
and his family, "all in whose nostrils was the 
breath of life, died" in the deluge ; but Noah 
carried the remembrance of the promise with him 
through the Flood, and bequeathed it to his 
descendants who were to people the earth afresh. 

For two thousand years the tale of the Fall 
and the promised restoration was handed down 
from one generation to another, and at the end of 
that time, God took further means to ensure its 
being remembered. From among all the families 
of the earth, He chose one — that of Abraham — 
to be a continual witness to it. He revealed to 
the Patriarch that it was among his descendants 



14 The New Creation. 

that the hope, which had ever been the comfort of 
the godly, would be fulfilled. 

u In thy seed," God said, u shall all the nations 
of the earth be blessed. 1 ' 

He afterwards renewed this promise to Abra- 
ham's son, Isaac, and grandson, Jacob ; and as 
time went on, from among the twelve tribes 
which sprang from Jacob, He declared the tribe 
of Judah to be that in which the Deliverer should 
arise, and the family of David the one in which 
He should be born. 

To His coming the Jews, or Israelites — the 
descendants of Abraham, through his grandson 
Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel — were 
ever looking forward. The greatest grief to an 
Israelite was to have no children, because he was 
thus without hope of being an ancestor of the 
Messiah. 

At last, after another two thousand years, the 
time drew near when the promise was to be 
fulfilled — so near that God told the pious Simeon 
he should not die until he had seen the Lord's 
Christ. 

We do not know what expectations Simeon 



The New Creation, 15 

may have formed of the advent of 'the Messiah ; 
he may very probably have thought it would be 
ushered in with great pomp and splendour ; but we 
do know that when the Holy Spirit showed him 
the Hope of Israel in a little Infant, brought by 
poor parents into the Temple, his faith did not 
fail, and, taking the Child in his arms, he uttered 
that exquisite song of thanksgiving which the 
Church has ever repeated, and in which you have 
so often joined : 

"Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart 
in peace, according to Thy Word ; for mine eyes 
have seen Thy Salvation." 

The Deliverer, then, had come, and you know 
Who He was. You know that because human 
nature could not, by its own efforts, recover its lost 
holiness, God resolved to do what man could not 
do for himself, and so the Second Person of the 
Blessed Trinity — The Word, as S. John calls Him 
— "was made Flesh and dwelt among us." He 
became Man — took to Himself, that is, human 
nature, and by uniting it, in His Own Person, 
with the Divine Nature, restored it to perfect 
holiness. 



16 The New Creation. 

This is the great mystery which is the very 
foundation of the Christian Faith, and which is 
balled the Incarnation. 

Those of yon who have studied Latin can 
trace the word to its root — caro, carnis, flesh — 
and see that it expresses our Lord's being clothed 
in flesh. 

If you stop and think of this wonderful mys- 
tery, this amazing act of God, and the incompre- 
hensible love for His sinful creatures which led 
Him to so humble Himself, you will understand 
why it has been the wide-spread custom among 
Christians to bow the knee in the Creed at the 
mention of the Incarnation. As we repeat the 
words : "And was Incarnate by the Holy Ghost 
of the Virgin Mary, and was made Man," 
what is more natural than that the flesh which 
He deigned to unite unto Himself should make 
its lowly acknowledgment of His marvellous 
condescension ? 

But to return to our Lord's coming into this 
world as man. 

Looking at Him, we see once more, standing 
upon the earth, one single specimen of sinless 



The New Creatiox. 17 

humanity, as there had stood one in the Garden of 
Eden — a Second Adam. That is one of our 
Lord's titles, you know, and as we go on you will 
see how true a name it is. And as Satan tempted 
the first Adam, so he tried all his wiles on the 
Second Adam, but in vain. 

We follow our Lord through His earthly life 
and see Him — the Seed of the woman — bruising 
the serpent's head, as God had promised. And 
after being victorious in every encounter with the 
Enemy of mankind, and making full satisfaction 
for sin, we see the Perfect Humanity received up 
into Heaven and placed at the right hand of God. 

So far, all is plain to you, I think. Human 
nature, which fell in Adam, recovered from its 
fall in Christ. But perhaps the question is 
already arising in your mind — how is this to help 
the human race, after all ? Since the Incarnation, 
men are, by natural birth, exactly what they were 
before — descendants of Adam, and inheritors of 
his corrupt nature. What advantage is it to you 
and to me, for instance, that human nature was 
once more perfect in One Man, if it be still sinful 
in us ? 



18 The New Creation. 

If, indeed, there were any way in which we 
might share Christ's perfect Humanity, if He 
could be, in reality, a Second Adam to us, if men 
could be born of Him as truly as they are born of 
the first Adam, then we could understand that in 
Him, the Seed of Abraham, all nations of the 
world would be blessed. 

But can such a thing be ? 



CHAPTER II. 

u Created in Christ Jesus — Who is the Image of the 
Invisible God." — Eph. ii, 10 ; Col. i, 15. 

TURN to the third chapter of S. John's Gos- 
pel and read the account of our Lord's con- 
versation with Nicodemus, the Pharisee and ruler 
of the Jews, who, attracted to Christ, and be- 
lieving that God was with Him, yet lacking 
courage to come to Him openly, came at night to 
inquire about the heavenly message which he felt 
this new prophet must have to deliver. 

The interview took place at the very com- 
mencement of our Lord's public ministry, and 
what do we find was the message which He began 
at once to proclaim? Why, precisely this need of 
a new birth which we have just been thinking of. 

Nicodemus, you notice, salutes our Lord as a a 
teacher come from God." Jesus shows him at 
once that it would not be enough to receive and 



20 The New Creation. 

submit to His teaching ; much more than that 
was necessary : 

" Except a man be born again, he cannot see 
the Kingdom of God."" 

And when He says, in answer to the perplexed 
Nicodemus, "Art thou a master of Israel," one, 
that is, well acquainted with the Scriptures and 
Jewish learning, "and knowest not these things?" 
He seems to mean that Nicodemus, knowing how 
sin had entered into the world, and that it was 
now an inheritance and came with one's birth, 
ought to have been quicker to understand and to 
welcome the idea of an entirely fresh beginning 
for the human race, a new birth by which men 
would inherit a better nature. 

Our Lord says, u Ye must be born again." The 
mischief which had been done by the Fall was so 
great that it could be repaired only by the Creator, 
and man must be " created anew " — "born again." 

Nicodemus asks how this birth is to take place, 
and Christ tells him men are to be new-born in 
Baptism. "Except a man be born of water and 
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of 
God." 



The New Creation. 21 

Now, after this interview with Nicodetnus, 
there is no record in the Gospels of any further 
teaching of our Lord on this subject, nor have we 
any written details of the instructions He gave to 
the Apostles during the forty days after His Res- 
urrection (Acts i, 3). But just before His Ascen- 
sion, we find Him directing the Apostles to baptize 
all nations ; and that He had, at some time, fully 
instructed them about the nature and effect of 
Baptism is evident from the unhesitating confi- 
dence with which they immediately began to 
teach of it as a New Birth, by which, through 
the power of the Holy Ghost, each separate child 
of the old Adam is united to the Humanity of the 
Second Adam, so that it has a new nature from 
that moment, and belongs to a new race, of which 
the Head is the Man Christ Jesus, Who is the 
"Beginning of the Creation of God" (Rev. iii, 14), 
the First-born of every creature (Col. i, 15), 
and the First-born among many brethren (Rom. 
viii, 29). 

These titles refer, of course, to the Humanity 
of our Lord — for as God He is neither a Creature. 
nor our Brother — and they express very clearly 



22 The New Creation. 

and beautifully His relation to us as the New 
Adam, the Head of the New Creation. 

If you look at S. Paul's Epistles you can see 
how full his thoughts were of this subject. He 
was constantly comparing the two Adams, one as 
head of the Old, the Other as Head of the New 
Creation, and reminding those to whom he wrote 
that what they lost through their connection with 
the one they regained through their union with 
the Other. He says : 

u As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall 
all be made alive" (I Cor. xv, 22). 

u For as by one man's disobedience many were 
made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall 
many be made righteous" (Rom. v, 19). 

"As by the offence of one, judgment came 
upon all men to condemnation, even so by the 
righteousness of One the free gift came upon all 
men unto justification (Rom. v, 18). 

u The first Adam was made a living soul ; the 
Last Adam was made a quickening Spirit" (I Cor. 
xv, 45). 

u The first man is of the earth, earthv ; the 



The New Creation. 23 

Second Man is the Lord from Heaven" (I Cor. 
xv, 47). 

And the way in which we are to be united to 
this Second Man, S, Paul tells us, is by Baptism. 
He calls the baptismal font the Font of Regener- 
ation — new birth, that is. He says that as many 
as have been baptized into Christ have put on 
Christ. He writes to the baptised as in Christ, 
and says that if any man be in Christ he is a new 
creature — or, a new creation. 

S. Peter, too, says : "Baptism doth now save 
us," as we can easily see that it does, if it is the 
means by which we are united to Him Who is our 
Saviour ; and he addresses the Christians to whom 
he writes as being "bom again, not of corrupti- 
ble seed, but of incorruptible, by The Word of 
God" (I Pet. i, 23), and calls them "new born 
babes" (I Pet. ii, 2). 

You must not think of this New Birth as a 
mere figure of speech. Oar union with Christ is 
so real and so close that S. Paul dares say : "We 
are members of His Body, of His Flesh and of 
His Bones" (Eph. v, 30). He adds, with humil- 
ity, "This is a great mystery ;" but he holds fast 



24 The New Creation. 

to it by faith, and all through his Epistles the 
one great reproach which he makes to those who 
are not living as they ought, is that they are sin- 
ning against this great grace, this gift of a new 
nature which has been bestowed upon them, and 
living as if they were mere children of the old 
Adam, instead of being new-born in Christ. 

Will you think of this when you are present 
at Holy Baptism ? There will be much to make 
you inattentive, perhaps ; the crying of the child- 
ren, or some other little confusion, will be apt to 
draw your thoughts from the service ; but try to 
recall them at once and to keep your mind fixed 
on the great mystery which is being accomplished. 
Think how those who are there for Holy Baptism 
have come possessing only the sad inheritance 
they received from Adam — a corrupt nature — and 
how, after the water has been poured upon them 
and the words spoken, the inward grace has 
accompanied the outward sign, and they are born 
again and have received a new nature, for by the 
power of the Holy Ghost they have been united 
to the Humanity of Christ. 

Perhaps you have noticed that it is the custom 



The New Cbeation. 25 

of many of our priests to use two stoles at Bap- 
tism — one purple, the other white. Purple is the 
colour of mourning, you know ; white, of rejoic- 
ing. The priest wears the purple one, which 
reminds us of our sorrowful condition as children 
of Adam, until the moment for the actual baptism 
of the candidates ; then, laying aside the purple 
and putting on the joyful white, he performs the 
Sacramental act, and immediately calls upon the 
congregation 5 to give thanks to Almighty God 
u because these children are regenerate." 

This use of the two colours is very helpful in 
reminding us of what Baptism does for us. 

And now we come to a practical question. 
God has revealed to us the truth that we receive 
a new nature in Baptism, and w T e believe it. But 
God's revelations are never merely to be believed, 
they are to be acted upon. How are we to act in 
this matter ? What is there for us to do ? 

It is not difficult to find that out. We are 
new-born, indeed, but birth is only the beginning 
of life ; the life must be fed, strengthened and 
developed, and here we must work together with 
God. 



26 The New Creation. 

The Christ-life is a free gift from God. We 
cannot obtain it by our own efforts ; but once 
given, our co-operation becomes necessary to 
enable it to grow. God provides the nourish- 
ment, as we shall see presently, but we must 
accept and use it. If we were to lay aside a child 
at its birth, give it no care, or perhaps bestow a 
little attention and food upon it when it happened 
to be convenient, we know it would pine away. 
It must have proper food and care. • So we must 
tend and feed the Christ-life in us, that it may 
grow and develop and be continually thrusting 
out and taking the place of the old life derived 
from Adam. 

For the old nature is not at once cast out by 
the entrance of the new — that we can all of us 
feel. And there is plenty of food all about us 
for developing that old nature ; plenty on which 
the tendency to pride, anger, covetousness, sloth 
and all other sins may grow and flourish. Such 
food is offered us on every side, and alas ! how 
eagerly we receive it. 

But those of us who have had any Christian 
training, have had from childhood up, God-given 



The New Creation. 27 

food for the New Life also. We were all of us 
taught some little prayer, all learned something 
of the Written Word of God, were all probably 
taken to some place of worship. Cannot you 
remember how the New Life began to grow when 
such food was given it ; how, even when you 
were very little, something would stir within you 
at the sound of solemn words which you yet did 
not half understand ; how you dimly felt that 
the roll of the organ and the burst of sacred song 
had to do with something very glorious and very 
beautiful — with Heaven and with God, of Whom 
you knew hardly more than the Name ? 

Yes, the young soul responds quickly to the 
means of grace, and I wish those of you who 
have younger brothers and sisters to take to 
church, would consider this. Remember that 
they have received the New Life as well as you, 
and that it needs its nourishment. Do not think 
that they are too young to take part in the ser- 
vice, that they do not know what prayer and 
praise mean. They will know if you take the 
trouble to tell them. If they are taught why 
they must be very quiet and reverent, why they 



28 The New Creation. 

are to kneel or stand or sit, as the case may be, 
I believe that if they cannot comprehend all 
the words of the prayers, or follow all that is read 
and sung, there will yet be a spirit of devotion in 
many of those young souls which God may be 
vainly looking for in some of the older members 
of the congregation. So tell the little ones, will 
you not, Whose House the church is, and why we 
go there — to praise Him, to speak to Him and to 
hear what He has to say to us. Do not shirk the 
trouble this will* give you, and lazily think that 
you are at least doing something by taking them 
at all. Do not say to yourself that even if they 
do not understand anything about it, it is u good 
for them to get used to being there." That is 
what many elders seem to think, and experience 
shows that the perfectly natural result is that the 
children get so well used to being there and 
taking no part in the service that many keep up 
the custom in later years, and neither pray, nor 
praise, nor listen, although they may in the course 
of time adopt the attitudes suited to such acts. 

No, if we are not taught, when we are little, 
to receive, according to our capacity, the spiritual 



The New Creation. 29 

food provided for us, we often actually do not 
know how to take it later. 

And how is it with you, yourselves ? 

When you go to church, do you realize what 
you are going for — or rather, what you should be 
going for — to worship God ? 

Is your mouth really "praising Him with joy- 
ful lips" when you join in chant or hymn ? 

Do you really speak to Him in the prayers ? 

Do you listen to His Voice when His Word is 
read ? 

During the Eucharistic Service, do you truly 
"offer Him an Oblation with great gladness" ? 

When you find your thoughts wandering, do 
you recall them at once, or do you allow them to 
stray here, there and everywhere ? 

Does the incense of prayer go up to Heaven 
bearing no petition from you, though your lips 
may have followed the words ; and is your heart 
absent from the tribute of praise which rises to 
mingle with the Holy, Holy, Holy, of the Angelic 
Host? 

And if your conscience reproaches you when 
you leave the church after such a miserably spent 



30 The New Creation. 

hour, do you try to quiet it by saying that it is 
very difficult to keep one's thoughts fixed for so 
long, and that it is only natural that they should 
wander ? 

Natural, do you say ? And according to 
whose nature is it natural ? 

Ah ! we do not realize what nature it is we 
are so ready to bring forward, as an excuse for all 
sorts of weaknesses and faults. Our indulgent 
friends plead it in our favour, too, when they 
cannot really approve our conduct, and say 
deprecatingly, "Well, it is only natural ;" quite 
unconscious that their kindly meant apology is 
far from complimentary. 

Natural ! Well, it is true that Adam seems 
to have been easily overcome by Satan, and we 
inherit his nature, but are we really going to take 
that for a consoling thought ? 

When our higher nature struggles to get the 
supremacy and we feel uncomfortable over what 
we have been doing or saying, are we really going 
to cheer ourselves up by the thought that we are 
children of the old Adam, after all ? God forbid. 

And it is not true, either. We, children of 



The New Creatiox. 31 

the old Adam, after all ? What ! After we have 
been united to the Second Adam ? No ! After 
Baptism, evil is no longer rightly to be called 
natural to us. It is the fruits of the Spirit — love, 
joy, peace, long-suffering and the rest — which 
may correctly be said to be natural to us ; while 
the works of the flesh — envy, hatred, strife ; and 
all the others — are unnatural. For we have S. 
Paul's authority for considering our old nature as 
dead and buried. "Reckon ye also yourselves to 
be dead indeed unto sin," he says (Rom. vi, 11), 
and tells us that we are buried with Christ in 
Baptism (Rom. vi, 4). 

Perhaps this seems incomprehensible to you, 
and you ask why, if our old nature is dead and 
buried, we feel it stirring so constantly within us. 
It is because although the sentence of death was 
passed upon it when we received the New Life, 
the actual death itself is gradual ; the old nature 
u dies hard," as the saying is, and will not wholly 
die until the separation of soul and body. But 
we are to "reckon" it as dead, because God has, if 
we may say so, signed its death warrant, and so 
long as we are striving to live according to the 



32 The New Creation. 

New Nature which is in us, He graciously reckons 
the old as dead. He regards in us only the 
Nature of His Beloved Son, and His Death unto 
sin is reckoned as ours. 

Which of our works, then, are natural in 
God's sight ? 

Can we ever plead before Him that our sins 
are natural ? 

If we do, if we ask God to look away from 
Christ and regard us as in Adam still, we cut 
from under our feet the only ground on which we 
can claim His forgiveness at all ; for we are 
accepted in Christ, not in Adam. 

If then our acceptance with God depends upon 
our being in Christ, surely our chief concern in 
this world is to see to it that having been once, by 
God's grace, united to Him, we are continuing in 
Him ; that the old life is dying out, and the new 
constantly growing within us. And this brings 
us back to the subject of its nourishment. 

We have seen that God provides food suited 
even to the youngest of the new-born race, and 
we know that a mere child can, in the strength of 
it, fight its little battles "for Jesus' sake." And 



The New Creation. 33 

after the first few years are over and the time 
comes when the soul is to be brought into closer 
contact with the temptations of the world, the 
flesh and the devil, another means of grace is 
provided for us, that we may enter into the 
conflict "strong in the Lord of Hosts." 

Before going on, however, to examine this 
further means of developing and strengthening 
the New Life, there are one or two interesting 
things to notice still about our Regeneration, or 
New Birth. 

In the first place, Regeneration is not Conver- 
sion. I mention this because the two are often 
strangely confused. Why they should be I can- 
not tell you, for there is no likeness between 
them. 

Conversion is a word which comes from the 
Latin and means a turning. We are apt to use 
the word only for cases of marked and sudden 
change, as when a person who has been living 
without God is all at once, by some striking event 
or word perhaps, led to see the truth and his own 
error, and by God's grace turns from the path he 



34 The New Creation. 

has been following and enters that which leads to 
God. 

But there is no one who does not need Conver- 
sion, and that daily. Even those who have been 
the most happily circumstanced, who have been 
well taught and have had good examples and 
influences always about them, so that they have 
never for any length of time turned their back 
upon God, even these need constantly to be con- 
verted. Never a day passes that they do not 
grieve God by act, word, or at least thought, 
and in so far turn away from Him and need 
Conversion. 

But you can see that there is not the remotest 
resemblance to Regeneration in all this. 

Conversion (although brought about, of course, 
by Divine Grace), is an act of man, by which he 
turns to God, and it is an act which needs con- 
stantly to be repeated. 

Regeneration is an act of God, by which He 
imparts Christ's Humanity to men, and is an act 
never to be repeated. 

It would seem impossible to find two things 
more unlike each other, and yet people are some- 



The New Creation. 35 

times so confused about them that they will say, 
"What is the use of baptizing an infant, which 
has no understanding and so cannot possibly be 
converted.'" 

We answer, of course, that the infant has no 
need of Conversion, for it has never turned away 
from God, but it does need Regeneration. It has 
come into the world with a corrupt nature, and 
we bring it at once to God that it may be born 
again and receive a better one. We can say to 
them, also, that the Scripture doctrine of the 
analogy between the two Adams teaches plainly 
that infancy is the fittest time for baptism ; for 
as the infant, by no act of its own, is born into 
this world with the loss of that supernatural 
grace which the first Adam had, it is but just that 
without any act of its own, supernatural grace 
should be given it by its union with Christ ; and 
if it is as helpless infants, without understanding, 
that we receive the sinful nature of the first 
Adam, our helplessness and want of understand- 
ing will be no barrier to God's mercy in giving us 
the sinless Nature of the Second Adam. 

In the case of the Baptism of adults, Conver- 



36 * The New Creation. 

sion and Regeneration are in so far connected with 
each other that no one may dare to present him- 
self for Baptism who has not repented of his sins 
and turned to God ; but they are still two per- 
fectly distinct things, and one cannot take the 
place of the other. You can see that from the 
story of S. Paul. He was certainly thoroughly 
converted on the road to Damascus, but that did 
not make Regeneration unnecessary, for God Him- 
self sent Ananias to baptize him. 

I said just now that Regeneration was an act 
of God, never to be repeated. 

Do you know why that is ? 

Why must one not be baptized more than 
once ? 

If a baptized person has been leading a sinful 
life and wishes to do better, would it be wrong 
for him to think, "I will be baptized again and 
see if I cannot make a fresh start ?" 

Yes, very wrong ; for it would be as much as 
saying that the Seed — the germ of the Humanity 
of Christ — which had been implanted at Baptism, 
was not good, and that one must sow again in 
hopes of better success, You can see that this 



The New Creation. 87 

would be blasphemy, for there can be nothing 
wanting in the Seed, the trouble lies in the soil in 
which it is planted, and if we have no harvest we 
have only ourselves to blame. 

Have you not noticed that sometimes, in bap- 
tizing a person, the priest says : 

u If thou art not already baptized, I baptize 
thee," etc. ? 

This is what is called hypothetical or condi- 
tional Baptism, and is used when one cannot find 
out whether the person has been baptized or not. 
One cannot run the risk of leaving him perhaps 
unbaptized, but this form of words is used to 
prevent the danger of a repetition of the Sacra- 
ment, if it has been already administered. 

One thing more. Did you know that any one 
of us — you or I — might be called upon by God to 
act as His instrument in sowing this Seed ? 

In case of emergency, if death is near and 
one of God's ministers is not to be had, the 
Church allows any baptized person to administer 
this Sacrament. This strikes us at first as verj 
strange. 

It would seem as if such a solemn act could 



38 The New Gbeatio^. 

be performed only by those who have been espec- 
ially set apart by God to minister in holy things ; 
and we know that it would be impossible for any- 
one hut a priest to give the other great Sacra- 
ment, the Holy Communion. Why is it that we 
can act as God's instrument in one case and not 
in the other ? 

It is because in the Holy Eucharist the bread 
and wine must be consecrated, and we have not 
the power to consecrate them, but in Baptism no 
consecration of the water is necessary. 

You notice that when our Lord instituted the 
Holy Communion, He did not say, "Bread is My 
Body," "Wine is My Blood." If He had said 
that, we might have supposed that any bread and 
wine could be to us the Sacrament. But when 
He said, "This is My Body," "This is My Blood," 
He held in His hand Bread and Wine on which He 
had bestowed a solemn consecration. Now ; only 
those whom He has set apart to act as His depu- 
ties upon earth have the power to repeat His act 
and give the elements the necessary consecration, 
therefore they alone can give us the Sacramental 
Bread and Wine. 



The New Creation. 39 

Bat in speaking of Baptism, our Lord used no 
expression implying that the particular water 
used for the administration of the Sacrament 
must be consecrated. He did not say, "This 
water," but u Except a man be born of water." 
He thus Himself set apart once for all the whole 
element of water, to be used Sacramentally when 
occasion required. 

The Church has always held, also, that all 
water was sanctified for this Sacramental use by 
our Lord's own Baptism in the Jordan. One of 
the prayers in the Baptismal Service, you know, 
says : "Almighty and Everlasting God, Who 
. . . by the Baptism of Thy well-beloved Son 
Jesus Christ in the river Jordon, didst sanctify 
Water to the mystical washing away of sin." 

It is true that when one of God's ministers 
baptizes, he blesses the water he is going to use, 
for it is fitting that everything which is to be 
employed in God's service should be first set apart 
to Him ; but this blessing is very different from 
consecration, and the Baptism would be perfectly 
valid without it. 

And here I want to call your attention to a 



40 The New Creation. 

very interesting and important difference between 
the two great Sacraments, which you may never 
have thought about. 

You know that by the Consecration of the ele- 
ments in the Holy Communion they are brought 
into a permanent relation to that "Inward Part 
or Thing Signified, 1 ' of which they are the out- 
ward and visible sign, so that so long as any of 
the consecrated Bread and Wine remains, the Sac- 
rament is still with us. The water in Baptism, 
on the contrary, is not brought into an abiding 
relation to any inward part ; the Sacrament of 
Baptism exists only in the act of its administra- 
tion; it is of a transient nature, and the outward 
sign has only a momentary connection with the 
inward grace ; and when the act of Baptism is 
over, the water possesses no Sacramental virtue. 
We treat it with reverence, of course, as we 
should everything which has been used in God's 
service; we are careful to throw it out in some 
clean spot, not down a drain ; but the Elements of 
the other great Sacrament, because they retain 
their mysterious connection with the Inward Part 
— the Body and Blood of Christ — must always be 



The New Creation. 41 

reverently consumed by some of the living mem- 
bers of His Body. 

The ^Church Catechism marks this difference 
between these two Sacraments. It teaches that 
in the Holy Communion there are three parts, 
"the outward part or sign," the "Inward Part or 
Thing Signified, " and the "Benefits," or spiritual 
grace. 

But in the questions and answers about Bap- 
tism, we learn of only two parts ; "the outward 
and visible sign or form, 1 ' and "the inward and 
spiritual grace," because, as we have seen, there 
is no such relation between the water and an 
"Inward Part" as that into which the Elements 
in the Holy Communion are brought by their 
Consecration. 

To return to what we were saying about lay 
Baptism. 

Of course it is only in a case .of absolute 
necessity that Baptism should be administered by 
anyone not in Holy Orders, but such emergencies 
are not infrequent, and we ought to be prepared 
for them. 

If you are ever called upon to act in such a 



42 The New Creation. 

case, all that it is really necessary for you to do is 
to pronounce the name of the person to be bap- 
tized and to say : "I baptize thee in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, 1 ' 
at the same time pouring water upon the head — the 
usual custom being to pour it three times, once at 
the Name of each Person of the Blessed Trinity. 
But if there is time, it would be best to use some 
prayers. Before the Baptism, the collect: u Direct 
us, Lord, in all our doings," which you will find 
at the end of the Communion Office, would be 
very appropriate, followed by that in the Baptis- 
mal Service: "Almighty and Everlasting God, 
Heavenly Father, we give Thee humble thanks," 
etc. After the Baptism, use the Lord's Prayer 
and the last collect in the Baptismal Service : 
u We yield Thee humble thanks," etc., or any 
others you think suitable. 

And later, when you are alone, kneel down 
and thank God for having condescended to make 
use of you as His instrument, and often after- 
wards recall to mind what a solemn privilege has 
been yours in being allowed to open the door of 
the Kingdom of Heaven to a soul which might 
otherwise never have entered. 



CHAPTER III. 

"Strengthened with might by His Spirit." — Eph. in, 16. 

I AM going to take it for granted that you 
already know something of Confirmation, so 
that if you were asked about it you would be able 
to tell where it is mentioned in the New Testa- 
ment ; and could show that it was considered by 
the Apostles a most important Ordinance — one of 
the "first principles of the doctrine of Christ" (Heb. 
vi, 12) — and that it has, in consequence of their 
teaching, been administered in the Church ever 
since their time. Some of ns have talked that 
over together already and need not go into it 
again.* 

But if you were questioned not only as to the 
outward form, but were also asked about the 
inward grace of Confirmation, you would very 
likely be somewhat embarrassed to give a definite 

*Our Family Ways, p. 89. 



44 The New Creation. 

answer. The special work of the Holy Ghost in 
Confirmation is a puzzling subject to many young 
people, but I think it need not be. 

Let us go back once more for a moment to 
the Garden of Eden. 

Before the Fall, the Holy Ghost dwelt in 
Adam, who through that indwelling was pos- 
sessed of perfect holiness ; but when, by his 
disobedience, sin entered into human nature, the 
Holy Ghost could no longer remain there ; and 
although, after the Fall, mankind was never 
deprived of the Holy Spirit's influence, He no 
longer dwelt in the soul as He had done. 

We see His working all through the Old 
Testament History, but as you come to study that 
History more carefully you will notice a great dif- 
ference between the way He worked then and the 
way He works now. He moved men then as if 
by some mighty impulse from without, rather 
than by that gentle influence, that still, small 
Voice within, by which He moves His people 
now. m 

Moreover, His influence then was not neces- 
sarily a sanctifying one. Many of those on 



The New Creation. 45 

whom we are told "the Spirit of the Lord came," 
although they did the special work the Spirit 
moved them to do, and thus accomplished His 
Will, were yet by no means sanctified men. The 
Holy Ghost was with them, but He was not within 
them. Even in such men as Abraham, David, or 
the Prophets, He did not dwell as He at first 
dwelt in Adam ; nor even in the Apostles, before 
the Day of Pentecost. Our Lord Himself marks 
the difference when He says to them: u He dwell- 
eth with you, and shall be in you" (S. John 
xiv, 17). 

No ; ever since the Fall the Holy Spirit had 
sought a home in human nature, but there was 
too much sin. Like Noah's weary dove, He found 
no resting-place. But He found one at last in 
the sinless Humanity of Christ. In the Second 
Adam, He again took up His abode in the human 
nature from which the sin of the first Adam had 
driven Him. 

This was the sign by which S. John Baptist 
was to recognize the Messiah. "Upon Whom 
thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remain- 
ing on. Him, the same is Be." 



46 The New Creation. 

At our Lord's Baptism in the Jordan, John 
saw the sign, and u bare record, saying, I saw the 
Spirit descending from Heaven like a dove, and It 
abode upon Him." 

The Holy Spirit did not inspire our Lord for a 
time only, as He did the Prophets, to whom, 
indeed, He came, but left the T /i again after the 
especial purpose for which He had inspired them 
was accomplished. In the Human Nature of 
Christ He abode permanently, and thus the 
prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled : "There shall 
come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a 
Branch shall grow out of his roots ; and the 
Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him" (Isa. xi, 1). 

Now you can see at once what the consequence 
of that is to all those who belong to the New 
Creation. In them, too, the Holy Ghost can now 
be a constant Inhabitant and not merely a tran- 
sient Visitor. In our old nature He could not 
dwell because of sin, but when we are made par- 
takers of the Humanity of Christ, in our new 
nature the Holy Spirit finds a resting place. 

And so He comes to us at our Baptism, when 
we are first united to Christ, and brings us then 



The New Creation. 47 

certain gifts. The Holy Ghost has many gifts to 
bestow upon men. "There are diversities of gifts, 
but the same Spirit." Some, however, are special 
gifts, intended only for those who are called to a 
peculiar w T ork. Such, for instance, is the gift by 
which a man receives power to exercise the office 
of a Priest, or that further gift which consecrates 
him for the work of a Bishop. The words of 
Ordination, you know, are : 

"Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and 
work of a Priest in the Church of God," or "for 
the office and work of a Bishop in the Church of 
God." 

Those who are made Priests or Bishops have 
indeed received the Holy Ghost already, but not 
for that especial work on which they are about to 
enter. For that, He bestows upon them at their 
Ordination a peculiar gift which they have not 
needed before. 

But there are other gifts which are for every 
Christian. 

When Isaiah prophesied that the Holy Ghost 
would take up His abode in our Lord^ Human 
Nature, he spoke also of the gifts which He would 



48 The New Creation. 

bestow upon It (Isa. xi, 2), and these gifts we all 
receive at our Baptism, because we are then made 
partakers of that Nature ; but as we receive It in 
germ, as it were, and all that belongs to It must 
grow and develop in us, so one especial grace 
received in Confirmation is precisely the increase 
and strengthening of this Seven-fold Gift. 

If you look at the Confirmation Service, you 
will see that just before the laying on of the 
Bishop's hands, prayer is made that the persons 
to be confirmed may be strengthened by the Holy 
Ghost and may daily increase in His "manifold 
gifts of grace ; the Spirit of Wisdom and Under- 
standing, the Spirit of Counsel and Ghostly 
Strength, the Spirit of Knowledge and True Godli- 
ness," and may be filled with u the Spirit of Holy 
Fear;' 

Let us look at these various gifts of the Holy 
Ghost and see how each one is to help on and 
strengthen our spiritual life. 

Take first the gift of Understanding. 

This gift has been compared to a lens. If you 
have ever looked through a telescope, you know 
how its lens shows us wonderful sights. We look 



The New Creation. 49 

at the planet Saturn, for instance, which without 
the aid of the telescope appears like any other 
star in the heavens, and we are entranced as the 
full beauty of the brilliant orb, encircled by its 
shining ring, is disclosed to us. 

Or we look through a microscope, and its lens 
seems to open a new world to us, and shows us 
works of God which were not even visible to us 
before. 

So the gift of Heavenly Understanding enables 
us to see more clearly into the great truths of the 
Faith, so that we may have something more than 
a mere hazy idea of them. 

The Church's great Doctors, or teachers, of 
Dogmatic Theology — those who have treated most 
clearly and forcibly of dogma, that is — were men 
in whom this particular gift was very largely 
developed (for of course all have not the gifts in 
the same measure — one man has more of one, 
another man of another). 

Perhaps you ask : What is dogma ? 

Dogma is a positive statement of doctrine. 
Then is every positive statement of doctrine a 
dogma ? 



50 The New Creation. 

By no means. It is true that the term is 
often loosely applied to the special teachings of 
particular Churches, or even sects ; but, strictly 
speaking, dogma is the statement, not of any 
doctrine, but of doctrine revealed by God, and 
declared by a General Council* to be binding up- 
on all the Faithful — binding because revealed by 
Godf. 

Such dogmas are Dogmas of the Faith and 
are summed up in the Catholic Creeds, which are 
thus the expression of our belief, not in any 
opinions of men, but in Truths revealed by God. 

Now people often think that the study of 
dogma is very dry and uninteresting. They 
think this because they know so little about it. 

Suppose you look at a distant star. You think 
it very pretty, perhaps, but after all it is not 
sufficiently attractive to hold your attention long. 

Now, suppose an astronomer undertakes to 
study that same star, and finds by the aid of his 
telescope that what looked to him like a single 
object is really two beautiful stars or suns, 

l* An assembly representing- the whole Catholic Church. 
t Blunt' s Dictionary of Doctrinal and Historical Theology. 



The New Creation. 51 

revolving around each other — of different colours, 
perhaps, one red, the other green — and that these 
suns are the centre of a whole solar system, with 
its planets &c. Will he not be filled with the 
greatest interest and delight, while you feel 
neither, because for want of study you know 
nothing of the real nature and glory of what you 
look at ? 

Just so we can have no idea of the glory and 
beauty of the Great Mysteries of Christianity 
until our eye of faith searches into them by aid 
of the lens of Spiritual Understanding. Then, 
indeed, they become intensely interesting, and we 
are filled ever more and more with adoration and 
love for Him Who is the Origin of such wonders. 

And what is the gift of Wisdom ? 

The word wisdom comes from the old verb 
towit, to know. Now, in our Spiritual life, what 
do we need to know ? Surely, first of all we 
need to know God Himself, do we not, and 
Heavenly Wisdom enables us to increase contin- 
ually in our knowledge of Him. 

It is easy to see that this gift is developed in 
very different degrees in different persons. Some 



52 The New Creation. 

of us find it so difficult to raise our thoughts to 
God. Our minds are so full of earthly interests, 
it is hard for them to rise to higher ones. But 
there are persons to whom it seems comparatively 
easy to soar above the things of this world and to 
dwell in spirit with God. And by contemplating 
Him, they learn to know Him more and more, 
and through knowing Him they learn to know all 
things as He knows them — that is, as they really 
are and not as they appear. They learn to see all 
things in God's light. They perceive, for instance, 
that sickness and suffering and many other things 
which the world calls evil, are blessings in dis- 
guise, while much which the world calls good is 
really evil. 

This gift, bestowed in unusual measure, pro- 
duced the Church's great Doctors of Mystical 
Theology, those who teach us, that is, about this 
direct intercourse between God and our human 
mind, and show us the means to use in order to 
attain to it. For we can all arrive at some meas- 
ure of it, because we all have the gift of Heavenly 
Wisdom in some degree. 

Take next the gift of Knowledge. How does 



The New Creation. 53 

it differ . from Wisdom and Understanding ? It 
may be described as being more practical, as we 
say. That is, Heavenly Wisdom and Heavenly 
Understanding have taught us to know God and 
the things of God, while Heavenly Knowledge 
shows us how to apply to our daily life the truths 
which the other two gifts have made clear to us. 

This is by no means always easy, and so we 
often need the assistance of the Church's Doctors 
of Moral Theology — men who have received this 
gift of Knowledge in an unusual measure, and 
been enabled by it to teach clearly about this 
practical application of God's Truths to our daily 
conduct. 

Now we come to the gift of Counsel. 

We are often so placed that we have to choose 
between two courses, both which are good and 
right. The gift of Counsel enables us to see 
which would be most for God's glory. The 
young Ruler in the Gospel was following a right 
course and keeping God's Law, but our Lord 
showed him another right course which would be 
still more to the glory of God. The young man 
either had not the gift of Counsel and did not 



54 The New Creation. 

recognize this as the better way, or, if he did, then 
he was wanting in another gift, that of Ghostly- 
Strength, which would have enabled him to over- 
come his repugnance and to follow our Lord's 
invitation. 

Ghostly Strength is the gift of courage and 
fortitude, by which we act or suffer for God. It 
enables us to do what the other gifts show us 
ought to be done. II gives the Church her 
Martyrs and Confessors, while the preceding gift 
of Counsel gives her her Doctors of Ascetic The- 
ology — those who teach us about choosing hard 
things for the greater glory of God. Counsel 
produced the Religious Orders, and is the special 
gift of all those also who, day by day in their 
hidden lives, are choosing their paths not with a 
view to their own advantage or pleasure, but to 
God's glory. 

The last two of the Seven Gifts are translated 
in our English Bibles by the same expression. 
Both are called u The Fear of the Lord" (Isa. xi, 
2, 3). But the first is better translated, as in the 
Confirmation Service, by u True Godliness," or, as 
in the Latin Bible, by "Piety"— Pietas. 



The New Creation. 55 

If you look in the dictionary, you will find 
the definition of piety to be u duty and devotion 
towards God and our parents.'" The gift of Heav- 
enly Piety, then, is that spirit of devotion, of love 
and reverence, which God's children have for 
Him as their Father. 

You know that if we love our earthly father 
we want to be much with him. So this gift 
makes us love to be in our Heavenly Father's 
house, or alone with Him in our own room, to be 
often thinking of Him and speaking to Him. 
Piety has led to the composition of wonderful 
hymns and litanies, and has given us beautiful 
books of meditation. 

Piety towards our earthly parents makes us 
desire, also, to serve them — to show our love by 
doing anything in our power for them. So piety 
towards God led men of old to build the magnifi- 
cent cathedrals which are still the admiration of 
the world, and to consecrate their wealth to Him. 
It prompts those of us who have skilful fingers 
to employ them for Him, making hangings, per- 
haps, for His sanctuary, or vestments, or embroid- 
ering fair linen to be used in His service. 



56 The New Creation. 

One beautiful manifestation of this gift of 
True Godliness or Piety — the one by which, per- 
haps, we can best judge whether or not we are 
increasing in it — is brotherly kindness. For if 
we really love our Heavenly Father, we shall try 
to love all His children for His sake, and shall 
strive to serve Him by serving them. 

And now what is Holy Fear, the last mentioned 
of the Gifts ? S. Augustine's words will give you 
a clear idea of it. u Fear God," he says, "like one 
who fears to displease a person whom he loves 
with much ardour." The fear that arises from 
the thought of losing heaven, or of being cast 
into hell, is not Holy Fear. Holy Fear does not 
think of self at all, but only of its Lord. It 
arises from Holy Love, which loves God not for 
what He gives, but for what He is — loves Him 
for Himself — and thus dreads to do anything 
displeasing to Him. It is the only kind of fear 
which love does not cast out. 

Now you can see how necessary it is to our 
spiritual life that these heavenly qualities should 
increase in us, and how feeble a life that would 
be in which they should remain only what they 



The New Creation. 57 

were when first bestowed in Baptism. And yet 
notice that, though feeble, the life would still be 
life ; and that shows you why Confirmation is not 
absolutely necessary to the Christian, while Holy 
Communion is. One may live without strength, 
but one cannot live without food ; and so, when 
for any reason Confirmation is nqt to be had, a 
priest may allow unconfirmed persons to come to 
the Holy Communion, because they must have the 
Food for the Life received in Baptism. 

But they must u be ready and desirous to be 
confirmed" (see Rubric at the end of the Con- 
firmation Service). That is, being instructed as 
to what Confirmation would do for them, they 
must regret that they cannot be thus prepared by 
the Holy Ghost for their approach to the Blessed 
Sacrament of the Altar, and must have the firm 
intention of seeking His strengthening grace at 
the first opportunity. 

The increase of the heavenly Gifts comes to 
us just at the time when we have especial need of 
it, because we are at an age when we are going to 
be brought into closer contact with the spirit of 
worldly wisdom and understanding and know- 



58 The New Creation. 

ledge ; we shall be exposed to low, mean, earthly 
counsel, and tempted to place our trust in human 
strength ; the spirit of ungodliness, of impiety, 
will be about us on every side, while the spirit of 
Holy Fear will be, alas, almost entirely unknown 
to many among whom we shall be thrown. 

And now let us go on to look at some further 
benefits of Confirmation. 



CHAPTER IV. 

'■ Ye have an Unction from the Holy One .... 
the Anointing ivhich ye have received of Him 
abkleth in you." — I S. John ii, 20, 27. 

" Sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise" — Eph. 
i, 13. 

CONFIRMATION is sometimes called, in Holy 
Scripture, an Unction, or an Anointing. 
You know that under the Old Dispensation, 
prophets, priests and kings were anointed before 
entering upon their office — oil being an emblem 
of the outpouring of the Spirit. And after those 
first quiet thirty years of oar Lord's Life at Naz- 
areth were over, and He was about to enter upon 
His public ministry, the Holy Ghost descended 
upon Him also, at the River Jordan, and anointed 
Him to His Office, as the one true Prophet, Priest 
and King, of Whom all the others had been but 
types. 



60 The New Creation. 

Hundreds of years before, by the Prophet 
Isaiah, our Lord had spoken of this anointing to 
His work: 

u The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, 
because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach 
good tidings unto the meek ; He hath sent Me to 
bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to 
the captives and the opening of the prison to 
them that are bound ; to proclaim the acceptable 
year of the Lord 1 ' (Isa. lxi, I", 2). 

He read out that passage, you remember, in 
the synagogue at Nazareth, and explained it as 
referring to Himself (S. Luke iv, 18-21). 

And Confirmation is our Anointing. We, 
also, are consecrated by the Holy Spirit to be 
prophets, priests and kings ; for, as true members 
of Christ, we have a share in His three-fold Office. 

We have already seen that we may exercise 
the office of king. For is it not the royal prero- 
gative to admit to citizenship in the kingdom, and 
may we not, any one of us, if necessity arises, 
admit citizens into the Kingdom of Heaven by 
Baptism ? 

It is true that any baptized person may do 



The New Cbeation. 61 

that, but just as no layman should do it* if any one 
in Holy Orders can be had, so a baptized but 
unconfirmed person should give place, in such a 
case, to one who has been confirmed, because the 
latter has received a further grace and a special 
consecration to a share in His Master's work. 

We are priests also. For although God, both 
under the Old and the New Dispensations, ap- 
pointed a special priesthood to perform peculiarly 
sacred acts, yet under the Old Covenant His 
whole people was a u kingdom of priests" (Deut. 
xix, 6), and under the New Covenant, also, the 
Lamb hath made us u kings and priests unto God" 
(Rev. i, 6), and we are "an holy priesthood, to 
offer up spiritual sacrifices" (I S. Pet. ii, 5). 

Our office as priest we exercise chiefly at the 
Holy Eucharist. 

As soon as we are baptized we can join in that 
highest act of worship, for it is the one accept- 
able Offering of the New Race,and every individual 
of the race has a share in it. But before our 
Confirmation it is as children rather than as 
persons of full age that we are present at the 
Holy Eucharist. Baptism admits us, indeed, to 



62 The New Creation. 

the congregation of the Faithful, but Confirma- 
tion makes us competent to take our part in all 
work which a layman may do in the Church of 
Christ. It is to us what Ordination is to those 
who enter the Ministry ; it consecrates us to the 
priesthood of the laity and enables us to join with 
the Priest in offering the Sacrifice. 

And what is our office as prophet ? 

A prophet is a teacher. We are apt to use 
the word only of one who predicts future events ; 
but although the Prophets of the Old Dispensa- 
tion did usually foretell the future, their great 
office was to be witnesses for God, to reveal His 
Will to men and to instruct them in His Ways. 

And we are all called to be witnesses and 
teachers. Whether we will or no, something we 
are teaching. Like S. John Baptist, we are going 
before the face of the Lord and preparing His 
ways, and it behooves us to ask ourselves how we 
are preparing them. Are we making the paths 
smoother for His Blessed Feet to tread ? Does 
He sometimes find easier entrance into a heart 
because of the preparation we have made there 
for Him ? Or does He, alas, ever find a door 



The New Creation. 63 

more firmly closed against Him, because we have 
passed that way ? 

The teaching we give may be conveyed merely 
by the sight of the struggle for improvement 
going on in ourselves. Our spiritual progress, 
miserably small as it is compared with what it 
ought to be, may yet, by God's blessing, be suffici- 
ent to turn the thoughts of others to the way of 
holiness. Our earnest fulfilment of our religious 
duties may arouse others from their carelessness 
in that respect, and so bring them into contact 
with those means of grace through which our 
Lord will make His entrance. 

But besides this teaching by example, we 
must be prepared to follow S. Peter's injunction : 

u Be ready always to give an answer to every 
man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is 
in you." 

We shall doubtless often be questioned about 
our Holy Faith ; and it is not enough to point and 
say, with S. John Baptist, "Behold the Lamb of 
God." We must also, like him, be able to bring 
proof of the truth of our assertion. And so it is 
one of our first duties to prepare for our office as 



64 The New Creation. 

prophet by taking advantage of every opportunity 
offered us for our own instruction, attending 
classes for Bible study, or for the study of Church 
doctrine and history, or reading books on those 
subjects. If you have not begun to do this 
already, it is time you did so, for some of you will 
soon be old enough to be asked to teach in the 
Sunday school. You will very probably decline 
and plead that you know nothing yourself. But 
that is what young persons always say when 
asked to take a class, and although their assertion 
of ignorance is usually perfectly justified, it is 
supposed to arise from excessive modesty, and 
they are urged until, perhaps much against their 
will, they yield. This may very likely be your 
case, and you will some day find yourself — a 
young prophet — seated with a little band of dis- 
ciples about you, waiting to hear from your lips 
the message of God. 

Shall you be prepared to deliver it ? 

You cannot be, unless you have first heard 
and learned the message yourself. 

Do you perhaps think it will be enough if you 
talk to them pleasantly about the duty of trying 



The New Cbeation. 65 

to be good, of being obedient to one's parents and 
kind to all ? It is very unlikely that you will be 
given scholars who do not know as much about 
their duty as that. What they need from you is 
to be told how they are to do what is so contrary 
to their inclinations. 

You must be prepared to show them that 
God is Just, and gives no commands without also 
giving the power to obey them. 

You must tell them of the Kingdom He has 
set up on earth, with its King, the Lord Christ, 
and its officers, the clergy, through whom He 
governs His Kingdom and dispenses His gifts to 
His subjects. 

You have to teach them that they are citizens 
of this Kingdom, explain to them its laws, and 
show them that by using the means of grace 
w T hich are offered to all its citizens they will be 
strengthened to keep the laws. 

You must teach them, too, that their King is 
not only their Ruler, but is also the Head of their 
race, that they share His Nature, and that as 
that Nature is perfect, it is not only possible for 
them to advance constantly in perfection, but 



66 The New Creation. 

that it is certain they will do so if they really try. 

There is no vagueness, no indefiniteness in 
God's dealings with His people, and there must be 
none in the way you set them forth, or you will 
not be bearing true witness. 

And in pointing your little hearers to the 
Lamb of God, the Word made Flesh, you must 
direct them also to the Written Word, which 
testifies of Him, and must have learned first your- 
self how to explain it to them. 

If the necessary preparation for your work as 
prophet costs you some trouble, and is at times 
wearisome, is not the dignity of the office a suffi- 
cient reward for any amount of trouble ? Is it <t 
small thing to be called to share the office of S. 
John Baptist — nay, of our Blessed Lord Himself, 
the Great Prophet ? 

When He came into the world which" was 
"made by Him," He condescended to come in so 
lowly a manner as actually to need the witness of 
one of His own creatures to His real greatness. 
And so He condescends now to accept our wit- 
ness ; for it can still be said of Him that He is in 
the world and the world was made bv Him, and 



The New Creation. 67 

the world knows Him not (S. John i, 10). The 
time of His universal triumph has not yet come, 
when He shall tread down all enemies under His 
feet, and take to Him His great power and reign 
(Rev. xi, 17). He still comes in lowly guise and 
knocks gently at the door of the heart, waiting 
patiently for it to be opened. Many who do not 
hear His knock may yet do so if we tell them 
that He is at the door. And how He needs our 
witness to His Presence in the Blessed Sacrament 
of the Altar! Some of those about us who fail to 
recognize the Presence may be led to u discern the 
Lord's Body" by the honour they see us pay to It. 

And if we faithfully bear our witness to Him 
now, we can have a good hope that in that day 
when He shall come in the glory of His Father, 
with the holy Angels — when He will no longer 
need the feeble witness of His prophets, but when 
all their future will hang on the witness the 
Great Prophet will bear to them — we may have a 
part in the fulfilment of the promise: " Whoso- 
ever shall confess Me before men, him will I con- 
fess also before My Father which is in Heaven.'" 

We are also said in Holy Scripture to be 



68 The New Creation. 

"sealed" in Confirmation. u Ye were sealed with 
that Holy Spirit of promise" (Eph. i, 13). 
"Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye 
were sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph. 
iv, 30). 

Under the Old Dispensation, men received 
seals — signs and pledges of God's favour or of 
the fulfilment of His promises. Abraham, for 
instance, received "the sign of circumcision, a seal 
of the righteousness of the faith which he had 
yet being uncircumcised" (Rom. iv, 11). They 
received seals, somewhat as a seal ring might be 
given to a person to wear as a token. But under 
the New Dispensation, we no longer receive seals 
— we are sealed. As one stamps a seal on hot 
wax, leaving an indelible impression, so in Con- 
firmation the Holy Spirit imprints upon us a 
spiritual mark, never to be effaced. Therefore 
Confirmation, like Baptism and Ordination, is said 
in theological language to confer character. It 
makes us something which we were not before. 
And so I need hardly say that Confirmation, like 
those other two Sacraments, must never be 
repeated. To receive it again would be to act as 



The New Creation. 69 

if the work of the Holy Ghost had not been thor- 
oughly done at our first Confirmation. But noth- 
ing can be wanting on His part, there can be no 
imperfection in the Holy Spirit's seal. If the 
proper effects of the sealing are not forthcoming, 
the fault must be oars. The grace is there, but 
we are not using it. 

Now before coming to Confirmation, it is evi- 
dently very necessary that we should examine into 
the state of the soul on which we are going to 
dare ask the Holy Spirit to set His seal. 



CHAPTER V. 

"0 Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself ; but in Me 
is thine help." — Hos. xiii, 9. 

WE know that at Baptism the soul is made 
perfectly white and clean, for Holy Scrip- 
ture tells us that in that Sacrament all its sin is 
washed away. 

"Arise," says Ananias to S. Paul, "and be bap- 
tized, aucl wash away thy sins ; " (Acts xxii, 16), 
and S. Paul himself speaks later of "the washing 
of Regeneration (Tit. iii, 5). 

Another way in which Scripture teaches us 
that the soul is then cleansed, is by declaring 
Baptism to be "for the remission of sins."' 1 "Be 
baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus 
Christ, for the remission of sins" (Acts ii, 38). 

Remission, you know, means mtich more than 
forgiveness ; a sin which is remitted is entirely 
taken away and made as if it had never been. 



72 The New Cbeation. 

Now, if we did not stop to reflect, we might 
think that in the case of Infant Baptism there 
would be no sin to be taken away, because infants 
liave committed no actual sin. But after a mo- 
ment's thought we remember that children are 
born with a nature which is in itself sinful ; they 
inherit a tendency to evil, an inclination to do 
what is wrong rather than what is right. In 
every day speech this is apt to be called "the con- 
trariness of human nature ;" in theological lan- 
guage it is termed "original sin" — it comes to us 
from the source or origin of our nature in Adam. 

You can see that this tendency to evil must 
be in itself displeasing and offensive to an All 
Holy Being, but in Baptism its guilt is taken 
away and God will never bring it up against us. 

I say its guilt is taken away, for the tendency 
remains, because it is a part of our old nature, 
which, as we have seen, does not die at once in 
Baptism. But we have seen, also, that God reck- 
ons our old nature as dead, and therefore He 
regards us as having no longer any part in its 
guilt — the soul is freed from it and is pure in His 
sight, as it never was before. 



The New Creation. 73 

And if we are past infancy when we are bap- 
tized, and so have committed many actual sins, 
these, too, are all washed away, for in Baptism we 
are made "anew creature," and "have put off the 
old man with his deeds 1 ' (Col. iii, 9). 

We find S. Paul writing to the Christians at 
Rome about this remission of sins in Baptism. 
He exhorts them not to let sin reign in their 
mortal bodies, because having, in their old nature, 
died and been buried with Christ in Baptism, they 
had thereby been "made free from sin" (Rom. vi). 

These Roman Christians, you see, were letting 
the tendency to sin, which remained in them even 
after Baptism, lead them into actual sin. Grod did 
not hold them accountable any longer for the 
tendency, but He did hold them accountable for 
yielding to it and letting it "reign over" them. 
They were allowing spots and blemishes to come 
on those souls which He had so perfectly cleansed. 

It is true that S. Paul, a little further on 
(Rom. viii, 1), says that there is no condemnation 
to them which are in Christ Jesus, but he adds, 
"who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit" 
(and he writes also to the Colossians: "As ye 



74 The New Creation. 

have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so 
walk ye in Him). It was not enough that they 
should be in Christ by Baptism ; their life and 
conversation — their ivalk, in short — must be in 
Him. 

How is it with us ? Are we not like those 
Roman Christians, in Christ, but not always 
walking in Him ? Alas, yes, and that is why, at 
the time of Confirmation, if it has not been done 
before, all need to look well into the state of the 
soul on which they are going to ask the Holy 
Spirit to set His Seal. 

Every one who does so will of course find a 
great many sins on his conscience, and such per- 
sons as are no longer young may perhaps have 
fallen into some of those transgressions which 
even the world itself calls great — those which are 
commonly meant by "deadly 81118." They are 
called deadly because they are so bad and foul 
that Christ cannot dwell in a soul in which they 
are, so that the union which took place between 
Him and that soul at Baptism is broken, and as 
the soul's life depends on that union, the life is 



The New Creation. 75 

lost and the soul is again "dead in trespasses and 
sins.'" 

Now, when this is the case, how is this terri- 
ble state of things to be remedied ? Remedied it 
must be before the person can come to Confirma- 
tion or to Holy Communion ; for even supposing 
that it were not unspeakably wicked to approach 
God's Mysteries in a state of mortal sin, it would 
be of no use whatever to do so. For Confirma- 
tion is to strengthen, and the Holy Communion 
to feed, the Christ-Life given in Baptism, and if 
the Life is no longer there there is nothing for 
them to do their work upon. To bestow them 
upon such a soul would be like introducing food 
into a dead body. You know well that however 
excellent the food, it would not profit the corpse 
or bring back its life, although it would have 
strengthened and nourished the body when living. 

But when the life of the soul is lost, how is it 
to be again obtained ? I think you will see at 
once that it cannot be recovered by any efforts of 
the soul itself. For is the soul able to obtain the 
life for itself in the first place? No, nothing that 
we could do would ever unite us to the Second 



76 The New Creation. 

Adam and make us really partakers of His Hu- 
manity, any more than any act of our own would 
ever unite us to the humanity of the first Adam 
if we were not really descended from him. 

The Christ-Life is entirely a free gift from 
God, and is given us by Him at our Baptism. 
Your reason, therefore, will tell you that if we 
are unable to obtain the Life for ourselves in the 
first place, we must be equally unable to obtain it 
when, through sin, we have lost it, and that it 
can be recovered only through Him Who first 
gave it. 

But how? For it has pleased Him to give it 
only in Baptism, and Baptism cannot be repeated. 

Well — just suppose for a moment that that 
deadly sin had never been committed. The union 
with Christ w r ould in that case not have been 
broken, the Life would not have been lost, would 
it ? Then if, by any possibility, that sin could be 
made to be as if it really never had been commit- 
ted, the soul would be restored to the same state 
it was in before the sin, would it not — the union 
with Christ would be unbroken, the Life would 
again be there as before ? 



The New Cbeation. 77 

We feel at once that such a wonder as that — 
the complete doing away of a sin, as if it had 
never been — can be wrought only by God Him- 
self ; and we feel also that if He really does work 
such a wonder in our behalf, there must be some 
outward, visible ordinance through which He will 
assure us that He does it. We feel certain of 
this, because that is the way in which it has 
pleased Him to work His other wonders in the 
New Creation, always appointing an outward and 
visible sign as a pledge and means through which 
we receive the inward and spiritual grace — -giving 
the New Birth through Baptism, strengthening 
the new creature through Confirmation, feeding 
and nourishing it in Holy Communion — so that if 
He did not use an outward sign when restoring 
the Life to the dead soul, He would be acting on 
a different plan from the one He has followed in 
every other case. 

We should therefore confidently expect to find 
an outward ordinance for the Remission of sin, 
and as a matter of fact we do of course find one ; 
for when our Lord established and organized His 
Kingdom, the Church, He gave to its officers, the 



78 The New Creation. 

clergy, among other powers, that of remitting 
sins : " Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are re- 
mitted unto them." They do this, as we shall 
see later, not by any power of their own, but as 
Christ's agents, through whom He speaks and 
works. 

Therefore when a man has fallen from his 
position u in Christ," he must not think that he 
can restore himself to it. He must come to God 
as helplessly as he came to Him in Baptism, and 
ask Him to restore him to that state in which He 
then first placed him. And he is to come to God 
for this in exactly the same way in which he came 
to Him for Baptism ; that is, he is to come to one 
of those through whom God acts, and through 
him he will receive absolution from God. Abso- 
lution means "loosing from," or "freeing from," 
and by absolution God looses or. frees from sic. 

But you will be wanting to know how it is 
with those who have not committed any u deadly" 
sin, but who yet have on their consciences a 
multitude of those daily sins and offences to 
which we shall always be subject until we are 
freed by death from the flesh and blood of the 



The New Creation. 79 

old Adam. Is Absolution necessary for the sal- 
vation of these persons, or, if not necessary, can 
they derive any benefit from it ? 

The Church teaches that Absolution is not of 
necessity in the case of such sins, because although 
they relax the soul's union with Christ, they do 
not destroy it. We can easily understand that 
after any sin our union with Christ cannot be so 
close as it was before, and this relaxed state of 
union needs a remedy, and as our sins are daily 
they need a daily remedy. Now, Christ showed 
us such a remedy when He taught us to say : 
"Forgive us our trespasses, 1 ' and the Church 
teaches that by earnest prayer and true contrition 
— deep sorrow and penitence, that is — this state 
of the soul may be healed. 

But just here there arises for many persons 
who are conscientiously using these means, a 
painful element of doubt. 

"How do I know," such an one says, "that my 
prayers are earnest enough ; how do I know that 
I am truly contrite ? In fact, I see plainly that 
my contrition and my prayers are very poor 
things, How can I be sure that I am not living 



80 The New Creation. 

on in a relaxed condition of union with Christ, 
my connection with Him not so close as it might 
be, and ought to be ?" 

Well, such a person cannot be sure. It is 
impossible for him to judge what value his pray- 
ers may have ; and, indeed, the holier he is the 
less worth he is likely to ascribe to them. Neither 
can he tell by his feelings. We all know how 
changeable feelings are, and one day he might 
feel all was right with himself spiritually, and 
the next might feel that all was wrong. The 
only way in which he can be certain that he has 
his absolution is to go for it where God has 
assured us it is to be had. 

Assurance is what God desires all His children 
of the New Race, the descendants of the Second 
Adam, to have. He does not want them to be in 
a painful state of doubt about their own spiritual 
condition or His dispositions towards them. It is 
not the worst offenders only — those who are 
again "dead" in their trespasses — who, on repent- 
ance, are privileged to have their sins done away, 
and to hear-God's Voice assuring them that they 
are restored to Life, Those who have offended 



The New Creation. 81 

less are not to be less favoured and left to strug- 
gle on without any share in this Ordinance. 
They also have a right to the "benefit of Absolu- 
tion," their sins also may be done away, and 
made as if they had never been, so that their soul 
is again white and clean. For we must remem- 
ber that although we are told that earnest prayer 
will obtain forgiveness, it is not said that it 
obtains remission. That is, our sins may be for- 
given, and we may be safe from punishment, and 
yet there may be on our soul the stains and scars 
left by those sins ; but if God, by His act of free 
mercy in this Sacrament, blots out those sins, 
even the scars and stains disappear, and the soul 
is pure in His sight. 

And in which state do we wish to appear be- 
fore Him ? 

Shall we rest satisfied with the knowledge 
that if we die forgiven, we shall be admitted into 
His Presence, and not care whether it is with the 
stains of our old sins upon us or with a soul 
made white ? 

If we were invited to a great assembly at the 
court of an earthly Sovereign whom we revered 



82 The New Creation. 

and loved, and we possessed two garments, in 
either of which we might go — one which had 
seen better days, and which was not as fresh and 
clean as it once was, the other without spot or 
wrinkle — should we, because more time and 
trouble would be required for arraying ourselves 
in the latter, think: "Oh, well, this other is good 
enough. I shall be admitted, for the King has 
ordered that this kind of garment shall be allowed 
entrance ; and once in, I shall be sure to enjoy 
myself, whatever I have on." 

You know we should not think that. We 
should think of the honour we wished to show 
our beloved King ; we should put on our most 
spotless garments, even if at considerable trouble 
to ourselves, and do all in our power not to mar 
the brilliancy of his court. And shall we do less 
when the Court is that of the Heavenly King, and 
the invited guests among whom we shall find our- 
selves are the Angels and Archangels and all the 
Host of Heaven, the Apostles, Martyrs and Saints 
of all ages ? 

And we must not think that this is a question 
which need be decided only when the hour of 



The New Creation, 83 

departure out of this world draws near. For are 
we not already, and always, in the Presence of 
God, though we see Him not? And far more 
than that, is He not actually within us at every 
Communion? Are not the Angels about us, too, 
not only singly, as when God sends them to min- 
ister to us (Heb. i, 14), but often in great num- 
bers? In the House of God, when two or three 
are gathered together in His Name, and He is in 
the midst of them, is He unaccompanied? Does 
not His train fill the temple still (Isa. vi, 1)? 
And at the Holy Eucharist can we for a moment 
suppose that no Celestial Body-guard surrounds 
the Altar? 

If, then, even here we are in the midst of so 
glorious a Company, shall we not do all we can to 
be fit for it? Above all, although we know that 
if we have a truly penitent heart we may always 
approach God, yet shall we not take the means 
He offers us of making our souls fairer in His 
sight ? 

Are some of us tempted, perhaps, to think 
that after all there is not much amiss with us ; 
that, so far as we can see, we are about as good as 



84 The New Creation. 

our worthy neighbours ; that there would seem, 
therefore, to be no special reason why we should 
feel so greatly concerned about our spiritual state? 

We may imagine that if the foolish virgins 
waked occasionally from their slumbers, their 
lamps looked to them in very tolerable condition 
— rather dimmer, perhaps, than those of the wise 
virgins, but not sufficiently so to make them feel 
there was anything really amiss. The flame 
seemed to them bright enough. It was only when 
they realized that the Bridegroom was near that 
they exclaimed with sudden conviction : u Our 
lamps are going out"*. The thought of him whom 
they really wished to honour showed them how 
poorly prepared they were to meet him. 

So we must beware of comparing our spiritual 
condition with that of any human being, remem- 
bering that the light of the wisest will be but 
darkness when He Who is the Light of the world 
shall appear. Let us think only of the Bride- 
groom, Whom we go forth to meet so often even 
in this present life, and we shall be desirous to 
use every means to make our lamps burn more 

* Marginal reading. 



The New Creation. 85 

brightly ; we shall be in little danger of thinking 
the flame pure and steady enough. 

There are many benefits to be derived from 
this Sacrament which I do not mean to speak of, 
because there are other little books which will tell 
you about them, and will show you, too, what 
preparation you have to make before you can 
expect to receive these benefits. I will mention 
only one, which many can testify to by experi- 
ence, and that is that in this Sacrament we are 
not only freed from sin past, but given added 
strength to struggle against it in the future. 

It is natural that this should be so, for how 
can we be brought near to Christ, as we are in all 
Sacraments, without being strengthened ? And 
do we not need all the strength we can obtain ? 
Is the contest with Satan and our old nature so 
easy that we can afford to neglect any offered 
assistance ? 

We will now go on to one of the supreme 
marvels of the New Creation. We have seen, all 
along, how clearly and definitely God deals with 
us. There is no vagueness or uncertainty (al- 
though there is great mystery), about these won- 



86 The New Creation. 

ders which He works for us and in us, or about 
the way in which He chooses to work them. 

Each Sacrament brings its own especial Gift 
or Grace, and does not bring the Gifts and Graces 
which come through the others. 

In one Sacrament the New Creature is born ; 
in another it is strengthened and fitted out for its 
life's struggle ; in a third it is restored to health 
when sick and even to life when dead ; and now 
we must consider ^ fourth, in which it is fed, that 
it may grow and thrive and live forever. 



CHAPTER VI. 



{ My Flesh is Meat indeed, and My Blood is drink 
indeed." — S. John vi, 55. 



IN addition to the various kinds of nourishment 
with which God early provides the New 
Creature, and which contribute to its growth, 
there is one special Food without which all the 
rest would be insufficient. You know what it is 
— our Lord's Body and Blood. 

Perhaps at first that seems a very strange 
Food ; but consider a moment and you will see 
that, after all, none could be more natural. For 
what is the Life which this Food is to nourish ? 
Is it not the Human Nature — the Flesh and 
Blood, that is — of our Blessed Lord, of which we 
were made partakers at our New Birth, and which 
is to grow and develope in us and drive out ever 
more and more, and take the place of, the human 



88 The New Creation, 

nature of Adam ? How then could we better 
increase It than by constantly receiving more and 
more of It ? The question would seem to be, 
not u How can His Flesh and Blood nourish our 
New Life/' but u With what else could it possibly 
be so fitly nourished ?" 

So we are not surprised to find our Lord, when 
talking to the people at Capernaum (S. John vi), 
insisting on the necessity of eating His Flesh and 
drinking His Blood. Of course, they could not 
comprehend any such necessity ; how should 
they ? What did they know of any New Life 
which required new Nourishment ? They were 
not to blame for not understanding ; what they 
were to blame for was rejecting our Lord's words 
instead of receiving them in faith, and believing 
that He would, in His own good time, tell them 
more on this mysterious subject. They did not, 
indeed, know Who He really was, yet they had 
seen enough of His wonderful works to be con- 
vinced (unless they wilfully rejected the evidence 
of their senses), that He was at least One sent 
from God. 



The New Creation. 89 

"No man can do these miracles that thou 
doest," Nicodemus had confessed, "except God be 
with him.'" 

If, then, He came from God, it was plainly 
their duty to accept His teaching. 

It is not to be denied that this required great 
effort on their part, for several reasons. In the 
first place, this which our Lord said they must 
do, seemed to them to be against the Law which 
God had given them through Moses, He had for- 
bidden them to use blood as food, and the very 
idea of it was abhorrent to them — so abhorrent 
that our Lord would certainly not have used these 
words if He had not really meant what He said. 
He would not have used them, I mean, as a mere 
figure of speech, knowing how repulsive such a 
figure would be to His hearers. 

They understood very well that He was not 
speaking figuratively when He said they must eat 
His Flesh and drink His Blood. They felt sure 
of that, because although the expression "to eat 
the flesh" of a person was one which they them- 
selves often employed in a figurative sense, that 
sense would have been entirely inappropriate 



90 The New Creation. 

* 
in this case. To eat a person's flesh meant to 

injure him, to prey upon him. "When the 
wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came 
upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and 
fell" (Ps. xxvii2.). "Who also eat the flesh of 
my people" (Micah. iii 3.). 

They saw, therefore, that our Lord could not 
be speaking figuratively. He could not mean 
they must injure Him. He must be using the 
expression in its literal sense, must mean that 
they were really to eat His Flesh and drink His 
Blood, and in that literal sense they would not 
accept His teaching. In the first place, the thing 
seemed to them plainly impossible: "How can 
this man give us his flesh to eat ?" And in the 
second place, supposing it to be possible, what 
good would it do — what need had they to connect 
themselves with this man of lowly birth ? And 
so, instead of exercising humility and considering 
that this "Teacher come from God" might possi- 
bly know much which they did not, and that 
underlying His words there might be a deep mys- 
tery which they could not fathom as yet, they 
were like some people now-a-days, who think that 



The New Creation. 01 

anything they do not understand cannot be true, 
and so they went away and left Him. 

Our Lord let them go. Had there been any 
way in which He could have softened what He 
had said, we may be sure He would have done so; 
He would not have allowed them to leave Him 
merely because they were under a mistake. But 
they were not mistaken; He meant what He said 
and they would not believe Him, and there must 
be the end of the matter. For you can readily 
see that He could not at that time give them any 
explanation which would have satisfied them. If 
He had told them about the New Birth — that 
they must all partake of the Human Nature of 
the Second Adam, that He was the Second Adam, 
and that that was the reason they must partake 
of His Flesh and His Blood — would that have 
been any easier for them to believe ? 

Would it not have increased their difficulties ? 

Believing Him to be merely man, the son of 
an earthly father, would they not have said: "Is 
not this Jesus the son of Joseph and Mary, whose 
father and mother we know? How can he say 



92 The New Creation. 

that he is a Second Adam, and that we must be 
born of him if we would live forever?" 

To have made known to them the whole mys- 
tery of the Incarnation would only have increased 
their unbelief, because their minds and hearts 
were not sufficiently enlightened to receive it, and 
so our Lord mercifully withheld it from them. 

The Apostles, whose faith stood the test to 
which it was put, and who remained while others 
turned back, learned later, at the Institution of 
the Holy Communion, how they were to receive 
the Lord's Body and Blood; and at some time — 
we are not told when, whether during the Great 
Forty Days or after the Day of Pentecost when 
the Holy Ghost had come to lead them "into all 
truth 11 — they were taught ivhy they must do so. 
They were made to understand fully the analogy 
between the two Adams, and that they must share 
the Humanity of the One as they already shared 
the humanity of the other. 

And then they went forth to preach to the 
world this necessity of Union with Christ. Men 
must be "in Christ, 11 they must u put on Christ,'' 



The New Creation. 93 

and it was in Baptism that they were to put Him 
on (Gal. iii 27). 

But that was not enough; they must also con- 
tinue in Him, and we find the Apostles coming to 
Him daily in the Holy Communion (Acts ii 46), 
that He might give them Himself — His Flesh and 
His Blood — to sustain and nourish and increase 
His Life in them. They knew the absolute neces- 
sity of this, for had He not said to them with His 
own lips: "Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of 
man and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you" 
(S. John vi. 53)? 

Therefore we also come frequently and regu- 
larly to the Holy Communion, and we know 
that our Lord is there, always ready to give Him- 
self to us. Does it seem to you well nigh impos- 
sible to realize this — to realize that although we 
see only the Bread and Wine, our dear Lord is 
really present, not only in His Divinity, as God, 
but in His Humanity also ? Well, realize it fully 
we never can, although God will help us to do so 
more and more as we advance in our spiritual 
life, but we can all of us believe it, because He 
said it. 



94 The New Creation. 

Have you not sometimes wished you could 
have visited the manger at Bethlehem with the 
Shepherds and worshipped the Lord ? Yet that 
Sight was a great trial of their faith, and would 
have been of yours, had you been there. 

What ! That Child — the Offspring apparently 
of poor parents — born in such surroundings — He, 
the Saviour! He, Christ the Lord! 

It must have been very difficult for the Shep- 
herds to believe that This was Great David's 
Greater Son, and realize His greatness they cer- 
tainly could not. They did believe, however, and 
went away rejoicing. For the Angel had given 
them a sign: "Ye shall find the Babe wrapped in 
swaddling clothes, lying in a manger;" and al- 
though it was a very strange sign, one which t.hey 
would never have expected in connection with a 
great King, yet they did not doubt; and when 

they saw the sign, they worshipped the Babe 
whom it pointed out to them. 

Now do you not see that you may after all be 
real companions of the Shepherds; that you are 
so, indeed, every time you are present at a Cele- 
bration of the Holy Eucharist? They went to 



The New Creation. 95 

Bethlehem, the "House of Bread," where He Who 
was the Bread from Heaven lay awaiting them in 
lowly guise, His glory entirely concealed; and 
they recognized Him by the sign. 

Is not every Altar on which lies the Blessed 
Sacrament another Bethlehem manger ? 

Is not our Lord there — still in lowly guise, His 
glory still concealed ? 

Do we not recognize His Presence by the Sign, 
given us not by an Angel but by our Lord Him- 
self when He said of the Consecrated Bread and 
Wine: u This is My Body; This is My Blood?" 

And seeing the Sign, do w T e not believe and 
worship and go on our way rejoicing ? 

We are like the Shepherds, too, in another 
respect. 

It was by night they received the tidings that 
they would find the Lord in Bethlehem, and they 
went at once, "with haste," to worship Him there, 
so that it must have been very early still when 
they came into His Presence. 

And it has always been the custom of Christ- 
tians to seek the Bread of Life in the early morn- 
ing, taking first not the meat which perisheth but 



96 The New C be at ion. 

That which endureth unto Everlasting Life. 
A natural reverence teaches us that the Lord's 
Body should pass our lips before any other food, 
and we cannot doubt that this custom of fasting 
Communion comes to us from the Apostles. We 
have the same reason for thinking so as we have 
for supposing that the substitution of Sunday for 
the Jewish Sabbath, as the day of rest and wor- 
ship, is of Apostolic origin. The New Testament 
writings do not tell us so; on the contrary, from 
passages in the Book of Acts, we see that for some 
years the Apostles observed both days ; but because 
we have historical evidence that immediately after 
the Apostles' time the whole Church, everywhere, 
had ceased to observe the Sabbath and kept Sun- 
day only, we feel no doubt that it was done in 
consequence of the Apostles' instructions; for the 
teaching of no other men would have been so 

universally and at once followed. 

The case is exactly the same with fasting 
Communion. There is no direction concerning 
it in the New Testament; but we see (I Cor. xi) 
that in S. Paul's time scandal arose at Corinth 
from partaking of even a religious feast before 



The New Creation. 97 

the Holy Communion. The people were turning 
the Agapse, or Love-feast, into a common meal to 
satisfy mere bodily hunger and thirst; and when 
S. Paul writes, sharply reproving them, he inti- 
mates that he has in mind some remedy for this 
state of things which he intends to introduce 
when next with them. What this remedy was 
we may probably correctly infer from the fact 
that history shows us that immediately after the 
Apostles' time fasting Communion was the prac- 
tice of the whole Church; and, as in the case of 
the observance of Sunday, we must conclude that 
it was a consequence of directions given by the 
Apostles, as they alone would have had sufficient 
influence and authority to secure its universal 
observance. 

In any case, it was a practice adopted and 
ordered by the whole Church, and our Lord had 
promised that the Holy Ghost would lead the 
Church into all truth. Therefore S. Augustine, 
writing of the Blessed Sacrament, says: "It seem- 
ed good to the Holy Ghost that for the honour of 
so great a Sacrament, the Lord's Body should 



98 The New Creation. 

enter the mouth of a Christian before any other 
food." 

No branch of the Catholic Church, except our 
own, has departed from this custom which "seemed 
good to the Holy Ghost ;" and with us the habit of 
coming to the Holy Communion not fasting arose 
in a time of great spiritual ignorance, when peo- 
ple really did not know what the Holy Commun- 
ion was and so did not understand why such great 
reverence must be paid to It. Many do not know 
even now; they do not "discern the Lord's Body, 1 ' 
and in consequence treat It with a want of respect 
which, although unintentional, is very painful to 
see. 

Now here again we may be like the Shepherds. 
When they returned from their visit to the 
Manger, "glorifying and praising God for all the 
things that they had heard and seen," they did 
not keep the good news to themselves. "They 
made known abroad the saying which was told 
them concerning this Child. And all they that 
heard it wondered at those things which were 
told them by the Shepherds." 

So we must let others know of the Bethlehem 



The New Creation. 99 

we visit so often, and of Him Whom we find 
there. Not that we had best talk very much 
about it — except, indeed, with those who know 
Him as we do. With them we may talk of Him 
as the two disciples did on their way to Emmaus, 
with hearts full of love, and to us, as to them, He 
Himself will draw near. 

But in speaking with those who do not yet 
understand this great Mystery, we have to use 
much caution, because we may very easily be led 
into an argument, and arguments are usually 
lacking in reverence. We may very probably 
fail ourselves in that respect, and those with 
whom we are reasoning will be almost sure, in 
their ignorance, to speak irreverently; so that as 
a usual thing it is best to avoid discussion on such 
a subject. 

Yet we can tell of our Bethlehem in other 
ways. 

Our devotion to our Lord in the Blessed Sac- 
rament ; our efforts to be present at Celebrations 
of the Holy Eucharist ; the loving "haste" with 
which we go at early dawn ; all these things will 
be calls to others, invitations to accompany us — 



100 The New Creation. 

as "the Shepherds said one to another, Let us now 
go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which 
is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known 
unto us." 

You may be a Sunday School teacher, how- 
ever, or be in some way so placed that it is your 
duty to speak often of this great Truth of the 
Christian Faith. Then let your frequent prayer 
for yourself and your pupils be : "Grant us, 
Lord, always so to believe and firmly to hold, to 
think and to speak of this exceeding Mystery, as 
shall please Thee and be good for our souls." 

Of the Holy Eucharist as the Christian Sacri- 
fice, the Memorial and continual pleading before 
the Father of our Lord's Death, we will speak 
later. 

Bat before leaving the subject for the present, 
we may think of just one more way in which we 
can unite ourselves to the worshippers on that 
first Christmas. 

It seems certain that they to whom the Divine 
Child came that Holy Night, must have made it 
their first care to provide a better resting place for 
Him, the best they could possibly obtain. And 



The New Creation. 101 

we are uniting our devotion to that of the Blessed 
Virgin and S. Joseph, when we prepare our Altars 
for His Presence, adorning and beautifying them 
as well as we are able, trying to give Him the 
best welcome we can. We make the Altar bright 
with flowers and lights, and although we can 
never make a worthy place for Him to come to, 
we feel sure He will condescend to consider it so, 
if we have put love into the preparation we have 
made for Him. 

How very, very careful we must be, never to 
adorn our Altar because we want it to u look 
pretty," or because we are desirous that it should 
be as handsome as that in some other church. An 
Altar prepared from such motives will never be 
pleasing to God, whatever it may be to men. 
Prepare it for the Lord, make it as beautiful as 
your resources will allow, and then, whatever it 
may be in the eyes of men, He for Whom you 
have made it ready will find pleasure in it. 

The thought, too, that you are preparing for 
Him will make you quiet and reverent in any 
work you may have to do about the Altar. You 
will not speak unless it is really necessary, and 



102 The New Cbeatiok. 

will move about as noiselessly as possible. Every- 
thing you touch, the Altar itself, the ornaments, 
the hangings, the linen, all are His. They have 
been offered to Him, and accepted by Him, and 
must be handled with care and reverence. And 
this behaviour should extend to all parts of the 
Church, for if the Altar is God's Throne, the 
whole building is His Presence Chamber. Even in 
the palaces of earthly kings it is not thought prop- 
er to speak otherwise than in somewhat subdued 
tones ; how very unfitting, then, to let our voices 
be unrestrained in the House of the King of Kings. 
One thing we must always bear in mind in 
bringing our gifts to the Altar. There is one 
offering without which all the rest will never 
satisfy Him to Whom we offer them. Our Lord 
gives Himself to us ; He asks us to give ourselves 
to Him ; to give Him that Life which He first 
gave to us. Has He not a right to ask it ; and in 
offering it must we not say, as of all else we 
possess : "All things come of Thee, Lord ; and 
of Thine own have we given Thee ?" 

"Almighty and Everlasting God, Who by the shining 
of a Star didst make known to the Wise Men the Incarna- 
tion of the Eternal Word, Whom, when they beheld, they 
adored with gifts ; grant that the Star of Righteousness 
may always shine in our hearts, and that, as our treasure, 
we may give ourselves and all we possess to His service; 
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Ainen." 



CHAPTER VII. 

"Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of 
Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God." 
— I Cor. iv, 1. 

PERHAPS in thinking of the marvellous gifts 
from God which we receive in the Sacra- 
ments, some of you may have felt a little sur- 
prised that mere men should have so much to do 
with conveying them to us, that the assistance of 
a special class of men should be, in fact, actually 
necessary to us in order to obtain these Divine 
Benefits. 

Can, then, anyone save God Himself work 
such wonders as we have been considering ? 

No, surely not ; and although we do indeed 
see men daily administering the Sacraments, yet 
we know that in every case it is our Lord Himself 
Who performs the act. "It is the Lord that 
commandeth the waters." "The Voice of the 
Lord is mighty in operation." 



104 The New Creation. 

It is He Who baptizes, absolves and confirms, 
and Who is the Celebrant at the Holy Eucharist. 

Do you ask how we know this ? 

We have our Lord's own word for it. 

When His visible life in this world came to 
an end, and He ascended into Heaven, there re- 
mained on earth a body of men to whom He had 
given authority to act in His Name, and with 
whom He had promised to be always present, so 
that their acts would be really His. 

If you watch our Lord's intercourse with His 
Apostles, you will notice how He was gradually 
preparing and training them for a special posi- 
tion, and by degrees giving them a share in His 
own work. 

First, He called them away from their several 
occupations that they might be constantly with 
Him, that they might watch His life, see His 
works, hear His words, and be themselves care- 
fully taught by Him. Then after a time He sent 
them forth to preach (S. Luke ix, 2), thus giving 
them a share in the one of His three Offices which 
He was Himself then chiefly occupied in exercis- 
ing — that of Prophet or Teacher. 



The New Creation. 105 

Later on, in the night in which He was be- 
trayed, He gave them a share also in His Priestly 
Office, which He Himself was exercising at that 
moment; for a Priest's office, you know, is to 
offer sacrifice, and our Lord was then offering 
Himself to the Father as the Sacrifice for the sins 
of the whole world. It was in that Upper Cham- 
ber that He surrendered, in will, the Life which 
He intended to allow wicked men to take from Him 
a few hours later. You remember that until He 
Himself should have willingly given up His life, 
no one could take it. U I lay down My Life," He 
had said some time before; "No man taketh it 
from Me, but I lay it down of Myself" (S. John 
x, 17, 18). 

And so, that night, He was acting as Priest 
at His own Sacrifice — u Himself the Victim and 
Himself the Priest" — and offering up to the 
Father, to be slain, that Human Nature which 
He had taken when He came into the world, and 
which was to be henceforth the One "Full, Per- 
fect and Sufficient Sacrifice" of the Christian 
Church. And it was at that moment that He 
gave the Apostles authority to share His Priest- 



106 The New Creation. 

hood and to offer the same Sacrifice, for He said: 
u 0ffer This," and "This 11 was what He had just 
declared to be His Flesh and His Blood.* 

Later still, after His Resurrection, we see 
Him giving them a share in His Kingly Office 
also; and this again, as in the other two cases, 
was the office He was exercising at the time 
Himself — for it was at His Resurrection that 
He entered upon it. 

Of course we know that in His Divine Nature 
He had always been a King — King of Kings and 
Lord of Lords — and even in His Human Nature 
He was "born King of the Jews; 11 yet it was not 
until after the Resurrection that power was given 
to Him, as "Son of Man," to exercise dominion 
over all things. It was then that He said to His 
Apostles : "All power is given unto Me in Heaven 
and in earth ;" and while He reserved to Himself 
the exercise of His power in Heaven, He told 
them that His power on earth He meant to exer- 
cise through them, "All power is given unto 

* Both in the Hebrew and Greek (Septuagint) the word 
translated "Do" signifies, when used with reference to reli- 
gious worship, "Offer" or "Sacrifice." "Offer This"— "Sacrifice 
This." 



The New C be at ion. 107 

Me in Heaven and in earth ; Go ye therefore" 
(S. Matt, xxviii, 18, 19). 

Now, if we were not so familiar with these 
words, if we came across them to-day for the 
first time, what a very different "therefore" we 
should expect. We should suppose our Lord was 
going to say something like this : "All power is 
given unto Me in Heaven and in earth ; therefore 
I go through all the world, to subdue My enemies 
and bring all nations into subjection under My 
feet." Instead of that, it is : "All power is given 
unto Me — therefore go yeP 

Our Lord had already in some degree prepared 
the minds of His Apostles for thus taking up His 
work. On the evening of Easter-Day He had 
said to them : "As My Father hath sent Me, even 
so send I you." They were to go forth, that is, 
in His stead, to speak in His Name, to act in His 
behalf ; and that they might be able to do this, 
He was going to hand on to them the Commis- 
sion He had received from the Father. They 
were to have the same power and authority as He 
Himself had, for He said : "As the Father hath 
sent Me, even so send I you." 



108 The New Creation. 

He laid particular stress on two especial ways 
in which they were to exercise His royal power. 

We have spoken already of its being a King's 
prerogative to admit foreigners to the rights of 
citizenship in his kingdom. Now this the Apos- 
tles were to do, for they were to u baptize all 
nations ;" they were to admit the heathen to 
citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven. 

It is a royal prerogative, also, to pardon 
offenders. This, likewise, the Apostles were to 
do, for our Lord said : "Whosesoever sins ye 
remit they are remitted unto them." 

We may suppose that the Apostles were 
startled and perhaps alarmed at the idea of 
wielding such extraordinary spiritual powers ; 
but they must have been emboldened and their 
fears entirely quieted when our Lord revealed 
the secret of their ability to do these things by 
saying : u Lo, I am with you always." He was 
not going away from them, although they would 
see Him no more ; they were not to be the am- 
bassadors of a Lord Who would be Himself far 
away, but of an Ever-present, though Invisible 
King. In themselves they were nothing, and in 



The New Creation. 109 

their own power could do nothing, bat He would 
be always with them, using them as His instru- 
ments for continuing His work on earth. 

And that it was not those few men only 
whom He meant to employ in that way is evi- 
dent from His saying : u Lo, I am with you alway, 
even unto the end of the world" For the Apostles 
were not going to live until the end of the world, 
so it is plain that this power was not given to 
them as individuals merely, but as a body of men, 
a perpetual Corporation or Society, which would 
continue until the end of the world, although the 
members who composed it would in each genera- 
tion die off and be replaced by others. It was a 
Society which must grow, too, and have many 
thousands of members, if they were to u go into 
all the world and preach the Gospel to every 
creature ;" and we see the Apostles beginning 
to admit new members into it almost immedi- 
ately. 

The ceremony of reception was a Sacrament, 
in which the outward and visible sign was the 
laying on of the Apostles' hands, while the in- 
ward and spiritual grace was the gift of the Holy 



110 The New Creation. 

Ghost, making those on whom the Apostolic 
hands were laid "able ministers," conferring upon 
them power to act as our Lord's Representatives 
or Ambassadors. 

Our Lord Himself must have given His Apos- 
tles exact instructions concerning this Sacrament, 
for there was no hesitation or disagreement 
among them as to the manner in which their 
spiritual power was to be constantly handed on 
to others, so that the Society to whose members 
our Lord had given the commission to represent 
Him might never die out. 

It never has died out. The Society still exists. 
Its name is "The Apostolic Ministry." Every 
Bishop, Priest and Deacon of the Church belongs 
to it, having been admitted to membership by 
the Sacrament of which we have just spoken, 
and which is called "Holy Orders." 

The law of the Church allows no one who 
does not belong to this Society to minister to her 
children, because such a person cannot produce 
any commission from the King Whose repre- 
sentative he claims to be. His position is like 
that of the subject of some earthly King, who, 



The New Creation. Ill 

thinking himself possessed of diplomatic talent, 
and really desiring to serve the interests of his 
sovereign, should undertake to act as his am- 
bassador in some foreign country. He might 
have all the qualities required for the position, 
and his fellow-countrymen might testify that 
they considered him admirably fitted to represent 
their King ; yet we know that the government of 
that foreign country could not recognize him as 
Ambassador unless he could show the Royal 
Commission, unless they had the King's word, 
that is, that what was done by this subject (in 
his official capacity) would be regarded by the 
King as done by himself. 

Just so a man may sincerely desire to be an 
Ambassador of Christ, and be apparently well 
fitted for the position ; yet we cannot receive him 
as such until he has obtained his commission 
from the King by admission into that Society 
whose members Christ has once for all declared 
to be His Ambassadors, whose acts He has prom- 
ised to ratify. 

See how wonderfully S. Paul sums up the 
whole matter of the New Creation, the recon- 



112 The New Creation, 

ciliation of man to God through the New Birth 
in Christ, and the Divine appointment of human 
agents to whom is committed the carrying out 
of this scheme for our Redemption — agents who 
are to act u in Christ's stead." 

''Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a 
new creature ; old things are passed away ; be- 
hold, all things are become new. And all things 
are of God, Who hath reconciled us to Himself 
by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry 
of reconciliation ; to wit, that God was in Christ, 
reconciling the world unto Himself, not imput- 
ing their trespasses unto them ; and hath com- 
mitted unto us the word of reconciliation. Now 
then we are Ambassadors for Christ, as though 
God did beseech you by us ; we pray you, in 
Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God" (II Cor. 
v, 17-20). 

It is very necessary that we should realize 
this truth, that the Clergy are indeed Christ's 
Ambassadors ; for if we fail to do so, we shall 
very likely be wanting in the respect which we 
ought to show them. And that would be a very 
serious matter. You know that if the Ambas- 



The New Creation. 113 

sador of an earthly King is insulted, or treated 
with disrespect, his Sovereign regards the dis- 
respect or insult as offered to himself ; and Christ 
has been careful to warn us that it is so also in 
the case of the King of Heaven and His Am- 
bassadors. 

"He that receiveth you receiveth Me," he said 
(S. Matt, x, 40); and again: u He that heareth 
you heareth Me, and he that despiseth you 
despiseth Me" (S. Luke x, 16). 

Relying on these words of the Lord Himself, 
the Apostles did not hesitate to magnify their 
office (Rom. xi, 13), and to regard themselves as 
truly acting in Christ's stead towards their fel- 
low-men. S. Peter warns those to whom he 
writes (II Pet. iii, 2) to be mindful of u the 
commandment of us the Apostles of the Lord 
and Saviour ;" and S. Paul thanks God that the 
Thessalonians had received the word which they 
had heard from him "not as the word of men, 
but as it is in truth, the word of God" (I Thess. 
ii, 13); and he praises the Galatians because, 
notwithstanding his personal weakness and in- 
firmity, they had received him "as Christ Jesus" 
(Gal. iv, 14). 



114 The New Creation. 

In honouring the clergy, then, we are honouring 
Christ Himself. He is indeed in them, not only 
through those means of union in which all 
Christians share, but they are united still more 
closely to Him by a further Sacrament, by which 
they have become His special Representatives. 
They are visible signs and pledges to us of our 
Invisible Lord, and to them we may therefore 
come with confidence for those things which are 
necessary to our New Life, knowing that through 
His appointed servants Christ will give us all we 
need. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

"0 that men ivould therefore praise the Lord for His 
goodness; and declare the wonders that He 
doethfor the children of men V 1 — Ps. cvii, 8. 

HAVE some of you perhaps been in the habit 
of thinking that our Lord's work for us 
came to an end at His Ascension; that after be- 
coming Incarnate, and living here on earth for 
over thirty years, and making satisfaction for 
our sins by His Death, He went away into Heaven, 
leaving us, indeed, a perfect example, but in His 
own Person having no more to do with us ? 

People often have this idea, when they have 
not given the matter much, or perhaps any, real 
consideration. They are apt to think, too, that 
when our Lord's share in the work of our Re- 
demption was thus ended, the Holy Spirit's part 
in it began; they suppose that He came to take 
our Lord's place, to make up, as it were, for His 
absence. 



116 The New Creation. 

But when we look attentively, as we have 
been doing, at God's New Creation, we see that 
the real state of the case is very different. We 
perceive that the work of the Head of that New 
Creation is by no means at an end; for so long 
as sinful human beings are born into the world, 
it will be necessary for their Salvation that the 
Second Adam should give to each one His own 
sinless Humanity. 

This He does continually, and will be ever 
ready to do ; He will never cease to be "The Ever- 
lasting Father" of the New Race (Isa. ix, 6). 

No, the Incarnation was not for a time only. 
Our Lord did not assume human nature merely 
that in it He might do a certain gracious work 
for man, and then lay it aside again. He assumed 
it to retain it forever; and not only that, but to 
hand it on, to extend it, to His people in the 
Sacraments — which have therefore been called 
the "Extension of the Incarnation." 

And by thus sharing His Humanity, the way 
of return into Paradise and into the Presence of 
God is again open to mankind. We saw it barred 
behind Adam because of sin, for "without holi- 



The New Creation. 117 

ness no man shall see the Lord;" but it has opened 
to the Holiness of the Second Adam, and is open 
to us also, because we are in Him. As S. Paul 
says, we can now enter into the holiest by a New 
and Living Way which He hath consecrated for 
us, through the veil, that is to say, His Flesh 
(Heb. x, 20). 

And not only is Paradise again open to man, 
but the Image of God, in which Adam was 
created and which he lost for himself and for all 
born of him, is restored in us who are born of 
the Second Adam — created anew in Christ Jesus 
— for He is the Express Image of the Invisible 
God. 

May that Image become more and more dis- 
tinctly formed in us in this world, that we may 
one day "awake up after His Likeness and be 
satisfied with It" (Ps. xvii, 16). 

Nevertheless, although the Holy Spirit has 
not taken our Lord's place, still it is quite true 
that He is working for us and in us. Have you 
not noticed that although we set out to talk 
together of the Incarnate Word, yet every little 



118 The New Creation. 

while we have found ourselves speaking of the 
Holy Ghost also ? 

You will see why this is if you look back for 
a moment, as we have done before, to the Garden 
of Eden. There you see Adam's disobedience 
separating him from -God. The result of his sin, 
that is, was to destroy the union between man 
and his Maker; and because sin continued, the 
union was never restored until, by the Incarna- 
tion of the Eternal Word, God and man were 
4gain united in the sinless Person of Christ. 

Now, when the Angel announced to the 
Blessed Virgin that the Child to be born of her 
should be not only the Son of Man but also the 
Son of God, he explained how this Mystery was 
to be accomplished, saying: "The Holy Ghost 
shall come upon thee.'" The Holy Spirit, then, 
was the Agent in the Incarnation. It was He 
Who brought about the union of God and man in 
the Person of our Lord. 

But, to follow the same line of thought which 
we took once before, of what benefit would this 
restored union between Divinity and Humanity 
be to us as individuals unless we could share in 



The New Creation. 119 

it, unless each one of us separate human beings 
could also be united to God ? And can we be so 
united ? 

Yes ; for, as we were just now saying, the 
Incarnation, which is the union of God and man, 
does not end at our Lord's Sacred Person, but 
can be handed on, extended, to each one of us 
through the Sacraments. In them we are united 
to the Humanity of Christ, and are therefore also 
united to the Divinity, to which His Humanity 
is inseparably joined. 

Now, as the Holy Ghost was the Agent in 
the first manifestation of the Incarnation, we 
might expect that He would be the Agent in 
every Extension of It also. 

And so He is, and that is the reason we are 
constantly led to speak of Him when talking of 
the Sacraments. 

When we are united to Christ in Baptism, it 
is the Holy Ghost Who effects the union. We 
are u born of water and the Spirit." 

It is He Who establishes us more firmly in 
Christ at our Confirmation. 

It is He Who brings about the mysterious 



120 The New Cbeation. 

relation between the Body and Blood of our 
Blessed Lord and the Bread and Wine in the 
Holy Communion, so that when we receive the 
Sacrament we are in Christ and He in us. You 
remember that there is a special recognition of 
this action of the Holy Ghost in that part of the 
Prayer of Consecration marked in the margin as 
the Invocation. 

It is by the power of the Holy Ghost that 
those whom our Lord calls to continue His work 
on earth are united to Him in a special manner 
Had made "able ministers." "Receive the Holy 
Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest" — or 
u a Bishop" — "in the Church of God ;" and it is 
abo by the power of the Holy Ghost that these 
Representatives of Christ restore the union be- 
tween Him and His members when it has been 
broken. "Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whoseso- 
ever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them." 

When we think of the Second and Third 
Persons of the Blessed Trinity thus working 
together for our redemption, and remember that 
the Father also works with them — for He is the 
Sender of both Son and Spirit — is not our heart 



The New Creation. 121 

filled with gratitude, and do we not exclaim : 
u What reward shall I give unto the Lord for all 
the benefits that He hath done unto me ?" 

What, indeed, can we give Him ? What 
that can be of any value in His sight ? 

Since Adam's sin there has been found, it is 
true, One Acceptable Sacrifice — That which was 
offered on the Cross of Calvary. But, "Christ 
being dead, dieth no more," saith Scripture, and 
so how can we offer that Sacrifice ? 

The same Holy Scripture will show us how. 

The books of the Old Testament, S. Paul tells 
us were written for our learning (Rom. xv, 4). Let 
us look, then, at the description there given us 
of the Jewish Sacrifices. We may confidently 
expect to obtain light on this subject from them, 
because they were all types, or images, of the 
One Sufficient Sacrifice which was in due course 
of time to be offered to the Father. They were 
all types of Christ and His redeeming work, and 
when God's ancient people offered Him those 
sacrifices (which we must remember had been 
ordered, even in their details, by God Himself) 
they were setting before Him, although they 



122 The New Creation. 

understood it not, a picture of our Lord's Atone- 
ment, and for Christ's sake — not for any saving 
virtue in the things offered — the offerers' sins 
were forgiven and they were taken into God's 
favour. 

Now all those sacrifices were not only types 
of Christ and His atoning work, but each one set 
forth some particular aspect of that work, which, 
as we have seen, is not past and over, but is still 
going on. The Sacrifice called the Peace-offering 
was at once perceived by the Christian Church to 
be the special type of Christ in the Holy Euch- 
arist, and by examining this God-given type we 
shall learn that we can still offer Christ as a 
Sacrifice, and that it is in the Holy Eucharist 
that we do so. 

In the Peace-offering we find three parts. 
The slaying of the victim was not the whole of 
the Sacrifice ; there followed the offering of it 
to God, and the solemn feast upon it by Priest 
and people, and these two acts were as much 
parts of the Sacrifice as the first. 

It is plain that these two conditions of the 
Peace-offering are exactly fulfilled in the Holy 



The New Creation. 123 

Eucharist, so that in that Sacrament Christ can 
be, and is, our Sacrifice. We feast upon Him, as 
commanded : "Take, eat, This is My Body," We 
present Him to the Father: "These, Thy Holy 
Gifts which we now offer unto Thee" — those Holy 
Gifts which our Lord declared to be His Flesh and 
His Blood. 

We feel, however, that if the type was a per- 
fectly correct one — and how could it be otherwise 
if given by God — the first part ought to be 
fulfilled as well as the second and third. But is 
it ? For it was a slam victim which was offered to 
God in those typical Sacrifices, and there is no 
bloodshedding on our Altars. 

It is true that in those figurative Peace-offer- 
ings, a victim was always slain. The former ones 
had been consumed, they had passed out of exist- 
ence, and so, before a fresh offering could be made 
to God, the blood of another animal must be shed. 
But if it had pleased God by a miracle to preserve 
a victim for-them — so that although continually 
offered on the altar and constantly feasted upon, 
it yet remained unconsumed — the Jews need nev- 
er have slain another. That which God Himself 



124 The New Creation. 

thus provided would have been their most accept- 
able offering. Now this miracle has been worked 
for us. God has provided for Himself a Lamb 
(Gen. xxii. 8). When the True Peace-offering 
was slain upon the Altar of the Cross, death 
could not hold Him ; He rose from the grave to 
live forever, and, as S. John shows us in his vis- 
ion of Heaven, to live forever in His character of 
Victim. Even in the midst of the Throne, He is 
U A Lamb as it had been slain" (Rev. v, 6). 

So we see that, just as in the type, it is a Slain 
Victim that we offer to God; and at the same 
time we understand why, although the second 
and third parts of our Sacrifice must be contin- 
ually renewed, the first needs never to be repeat- 
ed. The type was in so far fulfilled once for all. 
There is no more bloodshedding at the Christian 
Altar, for the One Slain Victim is always ready — 
Jesus Christ, the Same yesterday, and to-day and 
forever. 

You notice that towards the end of the Prayer 
of Consecration, we make an offering of ourselves 
also : "And here we offer and present unto Thee, 
Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a 



The New Creation. 125 

reasonable, holy and living sacrifice unto Thee." 
How can we ourselves be acceptable to God ? 

In two ways. When we offer to God the One 
Great Sacrifice, any offerings which we can join 
to it are accepted for its sake. Of course, strictly 
speaking, we have nothing to offer. We are not 
our own, and we possess nothing, so that we often 
say : U A11 things come of Thee, Lord, and of 
Thine own have we given Thee. 1 ' Yet God gives 
us the use of things — wealth, influence, talent — 
and is graciously pleased to receive them from us 
again. 

But our best offerings are always blemished, 
and are accepted only through Christ, and so we 
are in the habit of praying God to accept our 
little offerings u in union with the One True Sac- 
rifice." And in this way, an offering of ourselves 
to Him, although in itself imperfect, will be ac- 
cepted. 

But there is a deeper meaning in this offering 
of our souls and bodies at the Holy Eucharist. 
We are then offering Christ, and are we not in 
Christ ? Are not we Christians the Mystical Body 
of Christ — He the Head, we the members (I Cor. 



126 The New Creation, 

xii. 27) ? God will not accept the members with- 
out the Head, but neither will He have us offer 
the Head without the members. If we do so, then 
so far as in us lies, so far as our part in it is con- 
cerned, we are offering a mutilated sacrifice, a 
thing which God has always refused to receive. 

As we look back, in closing, at these things 
which we have been talking of, there is one sol- 
emn question we must ask ourselves. What is 
the condition, in each one of us, of this Life which 
God has given us ? Is it healthy and strong, and 
increasing in strength day by day ? Or is it fee- 
ble, perhaps pining away for want of proper care 
and attention ? When others look at us, are they 
sometimes puzzled to know what we are, what 
race we belong to ; or do our words and actions, 
our whole bearing, tell of our noble birth ? 

"Born again, not of corruptible seed, but of 
Incorruptible, by the Word of God" (I Pet. 
i, 23). 

Are we copies of that Word ? Miserably 
blurred copies, indeed, and full of errors, yet in 
which the Word may still be deciphered ? Do 



The New Creation. 127 

we bear the same message to mankind ? "I am 
the Life," said The Word ; "I am come that they 
might have Life." Do we also proclaim : "This 
is the record, that God hath given to us Eternal 
Life, and this Life is in His Son" (IS. John 

V, 11)? 

To each one of us, as to the Apostles, it is 
said ; "Go, stand and speak to the people all the 
words of this Life" (Acts v, 20). We may be 
called to speak, or our duty may be simply to 
stand, but to stand so that our very attitude will 
show that we have "been with Jesus," and will 
of itself speak of Him Who is The Life. 

It is the blessed privilege of every one of us 
to tell of This Life to those who possess It not, 
or who, possessing It, know nothing of Its 
nature, or of the means by which It is to be 
brought to perfection in them. 

May God bless our efforts to tell of all His 
wondrous works ; and may He hasten the time 
when "they shall teach no more every man his 
neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, 
Know the Lord : for they shall all know Him, 



128 The New Creation. 

from the least of them unto the greatest of 
them, 1 ' and all the New Creation shall say : 

" Loving Wisdom of our God ! 
When all was sin and shame, 
A Second Adam to the fight 
And to the rescue came. 

" Praise to the Holiest in the height, 
And in the depth be praise ; 
In all His works most wonderful, 
Most sure in all His ways." 



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